God bless the men of 2nd Bn, 127th Inf, 32d "Red Arrow" Brigade, WI Army Nat'l Guard...good luck, and come home soon.
Usually...
Christmas Eve afternoon: go over to Dad/stepmom's house with sister. Drink beers, open presents, watch football. (Ah, memories of 1995...I still {heart} Yancy Thigpen.)
Christmas Eve: go to Grandma/Grandpa on Dad's side, enjoy Grandma's KICKASS Polish sausage and ham, open cards, see many cousins, enjoy wine. Go to stepdad's house (Mom's not around...see sig) and sleep.
Christmas Day: Open presents with sister/brothers. Go to church to hear Mom's old friends in choir.
Christmas Night: Above crew goes to dinner at uncle/aunt's or cousins' house. See more relatives, maybe another couple o'drinks. Go home happy.
This year: Shooting the Bears/Packers Christmas Day game for WLS-TV Chicago (happy now, spf?) will complicate things...but put more green in my wallet. (I can hear the "YOU SOLD OUT!" chants from Sec19Row15 and cransln now...)
Christmas involves going down to my brother's house in Mechanicsville, VA. He's got a couple kids, and wants 'em to celebrate Christmas in their own house, and the rest of us agree. (Mrs. Shem and I have one of our own on the way, but it's going to be Jewish, so it doesn't count.)
Traditions include: me helping the kids and Mom put together a gingerbread house, an antipasto and lasagna dinner on Christmas Eve (and no, we are not Italian), and bratwurst, Christmas bread, scrambled eggs for breakfast the next morning after all the presents have been opened, and me putting together the kids' new Lego stuff for them.
"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." -- George W. Bush, Good Morning America, September 1, 2005
Uhh...lessee... ...yeah, I got nothing. I'm not following that story with a blow-by-blow account of the one of three times I was inebriated, cause nothing happened other than me being really in love with everyone around me.