Holidays Day 12

I am lucky to have married someone form Wichita Falls, so we I've never had to spend one holiday with one family and switch the next year.  Benton is an only child, so its been pretty easy for the three Browns and the four Applings to combine holidays together over the last eight or nine years.

My favorite Apple-Brown tradition is our Christmas Eve ritual that is so fun that we did it last year despite the blizzard.  The Brown's go to the 5 o'clock Grace Church Christmas Eve Service and we go to the First Christian Church 6 o'clock service (more to come on the service in a later post).  Then we meet back at the Brown's to have tamales, chili, queso, guacamole, and 7-layer dip.  Everyone brings a $20-$25 gift - a good gift that you really want for yourself, not some white elephant garage sale crap. We draw numbers and pick out gifts, steal from others, and then argue about what we get "stuck" with.  Over the years there have been some pretty creative gifts put in the mix: lottery tickets, bottle of Crown, coolers, cookbooks, gift certificates to Comanche Red River Casino, Snuggies with a matching dog version, etc.

I've been searching my gift this year and haven't found the perfect something.  I'll post after Christmas and let you know what I end up getting!