Merry Christmas Eve! I can’t tell you how excited Travis and I are to kick off the holidays this year – even more than years past. Why? Emma Grace is finally old enough to understand not just Santa, but the story of Christmas. It’s so precious to see her play with her toy manger set and retell the story of Mary and “Jofiss” (Joseph) traveling to Bethlehem to give birth to God’s only son, Jesus.
With my family living in Chicago and Travis’s family living here in Dallas, we decided when we got married that every year we would flip flop where we spent Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year we are celebrating Christmas with the Cobbs family in Dallas and could not be more excited! We love that by swapping holidays we get to experience the traditions that we each grew up with especially since they were so different.
For me, we celebrated Christmas with my immediate family (parents, brother and sister) and spent most of Christmas day in our PJs! With the Cobbs, Christmas is celebrated on a much larger scale with the entire extended family. We consider ourselves quite lucky to experience Christmas both ways!
So what all does a Cobbs Christmas entail? Here are some of the tried and true Cobbs Christmas traditions:
Christmas Eve Day:
We kick off our Christmas celebration by having lunch at The Zodiac at Neiman Marcus in Fort Worth with all the aunts and uncles, all the cousins, and all the grandkids, hosted by Trav’s grandmother (aka Peg). This is one of the neatest traditions I think because you get to dress up in your Christmas best, eat the most delicious popovers, and end the lunch by receiving a handmade ornament from Peg. So cool, right? Peg makes ornaments for all the cousins each year. Such a special tradition!
Next, we head to Christmas Eve service and then back to Trav’s parents’ house to eat Trav’s famous chili, drink mulled wine, and just hang out!
Christmas Eve:
Since we’re home this year and Emma Grace is old enough to understand the concept of Santa, we will head back to our house in the evening to have some QT with Abby and Emma Grace, watch A Charlie Brown Christmas (a CE tradition from Trav’s childhood), and then set out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. Once the girls are down, Trav and I plan on enjoying a little bubbly together. 😉
Christmas morning:
There’s no doubt in my mind that Christmas day will start bright and early with the girls…like 6:00 am (insert yawn). We’ll open gifts & stockings from Santa and our own gifts while enjoying coffee no doubt and then pack up and head to Trav’s parents house to open gifts with his family and consume multiple mimosas!
Christmas Day:
By early afternoon Trav’s cousins, aunts and uncles, and Peg will arrive at his parents’ house where we will open gifts as an extended family, participate in a white elephant gift exchange, and cook a fabulous Christmas dinner!
The day after…
What I love about celebrating Christmas with Trav’s side of the family is that Christmas doesn’t end on Christmas day! The day after Christmas Trav’s dad’s side of the family will travel to Dallas to celebrate with us by opening gifts, cooking delicious meals, and making festive drinks! It truly is a family affair!
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning a little bit about our Christmas traditions and I would love to hear what some of yours are, so feel free to leave your favorite tradition in the comments below!
Thanks for reading & have a Merry Christmas!
xx – anna
