Tennessee Festive

So at the risk of being the absolute last person on the interwebs to post a holiday recap… Merry Christmas!!!! It’s like, so passé that it’s almost not passé, am I right?

(You’d think I’d learn by now that a week at home with family + a week back in Dubai hosting visitors + a couple of 24-hour flight odysseys thrown in the mix = an inevitable 2-week Gubbi internet hiatus, but no, every time I’m like “I’ll toooootally find time to blog in the midst of all the cray!” False.)

Mia famiglia, in all our Christmas Eve glory.

This was my fifth (!) year making the trip from Dubai to Tennessee for the holiday, and though it’s not an easy journey (2 days of travel for 6 days on the ground, a 10-hour time difference-worth of jet lag, and many many hundreds of the American dollars spent on plane tickets), every year it inevitably proves worthwhile. I know someday I have to become One Of Those Adults Who Doesn’t Spend Every Christmas With Their Family, but, well… every year I hope I can stave off that milestone for just one year longer.

Their stockings were hung by the chimney with care…

For now I’ll just be thankful that, once again, I got to be part of the annual Christmas morning top-of-the-stairs kids (+ partners, + pets!) family photo shoot:

In case you can’t tell from all the glasses, being almost-legally-blind runs in my family… Alex is less than excited about the little squinty-eyed mole-children I will inevitably produce.

Since the incorporation of Alex into our family Christmas last year, we’ve adopted a whole new host of holiday traditions: Christmas Eve backyard shisha featuring coals expertly heated, barbecue-style, on the patio grill…

Still no word on what the neighbors think of our innocuous flavored-tobacco pastime.

… and English-style Christmas crackers - complete with bad jokes and funny hats! - a reflection of Alex’s misspent youth in the UK.

Honestly though, gift giving (and receiving!) is still my favorite part of the holiday:

A new sweater, hat, and socks for my increasingly dapper father…

Babby’s First Le Creuset for my master-chef little sister…

And a little uplifting reading for my ever-optimistic (?) counter-cultural brother.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper Tennessee Christmas if the neighbors didn’t pop over to play a little banjo in their overalls…

… and my mom and sister didn’t bake a batch or two of disturbingly perfect Christmas cookies.

Christmas at home means never having to say you’re sorry for eating cookies as breakfast.

All in all, a trip well spent and a journey happily taken… Merry Belated to you and yours!

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timothyschmitz said: Yes, Christmas crackers! It’s not Christmas if you’re not wearing a ridiculous hat and telling awful jokes. In my family, hat-wearing is mandatory through the conclusion of dinner.
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thekidhasarrived said: Thank you for making me be not the last person to post about holiday crap! Also, those cookies look amazing. Mine always just look like gobs of icing were stuck on by blind monkeys.
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