Next year I’m not going to bring out presents before xmas eve, because Clive is DRIVING ME CRAZY! “Let’s open our presents tonight!” he says. “Do you want to open your presents tonight?” “How about if we open all our presents on xmas eve?” “It’s the 12 days of xmas! Why don’t we start opening our presents tonight?” I find it utterly adorable.
Last year our xmas presents to each other were pretty subpar because we were living in the land-of-crappy-things, the BVI. Shopping for anything good was nearly impossible, and even if we did find things that we wanted to buy one another, you could count on it being 50-75% more expensive than at home.
I’ve gone all out this xmas, spending three times the normal amount I usually allocate for boyfriends. We also bought our very first xmas tree together (and really, as adults), and we think it’s very pretty. Plus, it’s from Nova Scotia, and I’m a sucker for anything from there.
Clive and I are learning about each other’s xmas traditions. In my family, we open up one gift on xmas eve, and save everything else for xmas day. We also have stockings, which must contain all of the following: one can of pop, one small tub of yogurt and one lottery ticket. My mom also buys those little chocolate balls which I don’t really like but are now part of the tradition, so I like having them in there anyway.
Clive’s traditions include having a pillowcase full of presents from Santa at the foot of the bed on xmas morning, which he thought was just a “xmas thing” and not a family tradition, but I’d never heard of it before.
