Christmas in Minnesota

For the first time ever, I spent Christmas away from my family. Luckily, no huge disaster occurred, I didn’t melt or anything. Anyway I was more likely to freeze in the Minnesota snow. Speaking of freezing, I learned that frogs freeze in the Minnesota winter and then come spring they thaw out and continue living their lives. Is it possible for me to do the same thing when Ben deploys?

We enjoyed our time in Minnesota. While we were there we went to the temple, which was really nice because instead of driving 3 hours we only had to drive about 15 minutes. I especially enjoyed Christmas Eve. The whole thing turned out to be quite a mystery. I kept asking people what sort of family traditions they had for Christmas Eve, and nobody seemed to remember what exactly they do every Christmas Eve.

It wasn’t until we got over to Ben’s brother’s place that the mystery was revealed. It was rather lovely. We had a nice Christmas dinner and gathered together for a spiritual devotional that they accented with illustrations of the story of Christ’s birth and Christmas hymns that we all sang together. Ben and I really enjoyed the wonderful spirit that we felt as we participated in this tradition and look forward to adding something similar to our own families repertoire of traditions.

Christmas day was certainly a completely different experience for me. The kids opened Santa’s gifts, and then we paused everything and ate breakfast. Breakfast was very good. We ate yummy breakfast burritos and sweet rolls.

After breakfast and phone calls to family, we opened the rest of our Christmas presents one at a time in order of birth. The rest of the day was very relaxed. Ben and I stayed in our pajamas all day as part of our own family tradition. We didn’t have a big dinner, but a lot of snacking on junk food throughout the day. The kids got to eat anything they wanted whenever they wanted on Christmas day including soda for breakfast. This most definitely has its ups and downs.
Down:
1.After eating so much junk food, I ended up very sick on the flight and trip back to TX.
2. I never felt fully satisfied even though it felt like I was constantly eating.
Up:
1. We got to eat stuff I wouldn't normally buy.
2. I don’t want to eat such fatty fried food for a very long time (maybe not until next Christmas). This is worth two on its own :)

Ben and I had a lot of fun spending time with the family in Minnesota. Both of us felt like the trip was way too short. This is by far my favorite visit to MN, and as a result I’m now fancifully considering living there after our stint in the Military.

Continuing the Food Theme

Food during the holidays is a big thing for my family. A really BIG thing. We always have a billion different dishes for our holiday dinners and I always thought that that was pretty much normal, until I met my dear husband, Ben. His family does not really emphasize food during Christmas and Thanksgiving, which is something I will need to get used to. I mean, we are talking two different ends of the spectrum on the food menu thing. My family would use an excel spreadsheet to coordinate their holiday dishes, while Ben’s family sometimes didn’t even cook anything special on Christmas Eve or Day when he was growing up.

I informed Ben that Christmas without the dinner is not really Christmas. In fact, it is pretty much just a birthday, well, without cake. Like I said, pretty different. Of course, this piece of information is something Ben forgot to tell me before we got married. Not that our eternal marriage would have hinged on something like that, I’m just saying, it would have been nice to take into consideration. He has also failed to mention this detail during the last couple Christmases he has spent with my family. He actually mentioned very little about his family’s Christmas celebration besides the fact that they read Luke 2 on Christmas Eve. It wasn’t until our sister-in-law called a few days ago to tell me about their Christmas traditions (thank goodness she realized that I might need some prepping) that I found out they did things differently. I’ve been trying to prepare myself mentally for the change. Tonight we had our ward Christmas party and I made sure to eat plenty of turkey, ham, green bean casserole, and ham. I’m not sure if it will hold me over until next holiday season, but here’s to hoping. If not, we will just have to have Christmas dinner on Ben’s birthday.

In all seriousness, this will be my first Christmas away from my family and I’m a little sad, but I’m also excited to see Ben’s family and experience Christmas with them in Minnesota.