This is the first of many...

...blog posts about Christmas and Anna's first Christmas Miller-style!

First, for those who don't know, Christmas in the Miller family is a BIG DEAL and it's always been the exact same as long as I can remember. Birthdays, anniversaries, other holidays or commemorations that possibly warrant gift-giving pretty much pass by without much fanfare. Not Christmas. The pictures don't do it justice. The presents come out from under the tree, go behind the couches and spread about halfway across the room, and those presents don't include the "Santa piles" for each great grandchild. Everything goes pretty much the same each Christmas - on Christmas Eve we do the family nativity, Grandma reads The Night Before Christmas, we leave out treats for Santa and the reindeer, and the next morning those of us who don't stay at the Heber House reconvene in the wee hours of the morning. After we're all there and ready to go, the kids run downstairs and go to their Santa pile, everyone in the whole family (there are too many to count now) opens opens their stocking, and then the great grandkids take turns opening one gift at a time from their Santa pile (in order of youngest to oldest). Once Santa piles are done Grandpa starts handing out the presents from "under" the tree and we open presents for a very long time. Then, Grandma makes her traditional Christmas breakfast of scrambled eggs, orange rolls, italian sausage, fresh sliced oranges, and my personal favorite, avocado toast. We spend the rest of the day playing with the toys and things Santa brought us and hang around and nap (or for those of us who didn't nap early enough, listen to Kate devote all of her Christmas energy to her new High School Musical karaoke machine) until it's time for Christmas dinner where we eat another delicious Grandma meal. We then reluctantly go home as another perfect Christmas comes to an end.

This year we spent Christmas Eve with Steve's parents and somehow we managed to all get into the same color of red so we looked somewhat organized. Anna loved her first Christmas morning with the family - most especially eating the ribbon off her presents, orange rolls, and napping in the "baby sleep chamber wonder of the world" otherwise known as Grandma's closet.

Nothing really ever chages in this scenario except that we used to do this very same routine in LA for years and then we switched to Heber. Also, the family keeps getting bigger. But ultimately, I can't imagine Christmas being any other way than exactly as I described above, and having to do my first Santa pile this year I have to publicly thank Ann, Grandma, and Mom for all the work they have put into making Christmas the best Christmas in the entire world for us every single year!