Christmas Traditions

I was wondering what you folks did to celebrate the holidays? I know it's a little early but I started setting up our decorations on Veterans day. We get about 30 family members here for Christmas dinner. Of course it starts at noon and ends around 11 PM. It's more like an open house than a formal dinner but it's great.

As a kid we went to bed on Christmas eve early with no decorations up. When we got up the tree was up with a Lionel train going around it. When my kids were young I did the same for them but somehow, somewhere within the last 28 years my Christmas train going around the tree turned into a 6 X 16 2 level monster with a tree at one end. We just got finished putting up the Christmas yard and by the end of the week the rest of the house will be done.

Man...Does that bring back memories!!..I had the same Lionel transformer!! (the single lever one in the first pic)

I pulled the old tree out of the box again today! Kids are working on it right now!

We went and picked out our tree on Saturday, it has become a tradition of sorts. A group of us meet at the local diner for breakfast then head to the local tree farm, once everyone has picked a tree we cut them down, bring them home, then share a huge pot of chilie for lunch.