Happy Gormukkah!

For the newbies in town I'll fill you in on my little people's favorite holiday of the season -- GORMUKKAH!

We invented Gormukkah several years ago after having a particularly confusing Christmas morning.  The kids (I am not sure how many of them were around at the time) opened their Santa gifts and then the gifts that had been mailed in from our out-of-town family members (EVERYONE!  We are here alone.) when I realized that I'd lost track of who had sent which gift and I started feeling very guilty because I would not be able to thank anyone without feeling foolish.  "Um, Grandma, thanks for sending the great ... um ... gift.  Sarah really liked it ... er them? ... uh ... Thanks."  

So, from that year on, we decided to collect the non-Santa gifts under our tree and then let the kids open them one gift per night for about a week or so before Christmas.  And so, Gormukkah was born.  It's been a fantastic hit in our house!  The kids love it.  I think that our gift senders should love it as well because their gift gets lots of attention and doesn't get lost in the muck of Christmas morning.

This year, both girls had to write a note for school about their favorite family tradition.  They both chose Gormukkah.  I think it's sweet that they love our holiday ... but I hope that their friends and teachers don't think we are insane for celebrating a made-up holiday.  I saw Sarah's hanging front and center in the hallway between all the other Christmas Eve caroling and Thanksgiving turkey letters.

We had an accelerated Gormukkah this year.  I usually choose the first day of Gormukkah based on the amount of gifts under our tree.  This year, we only had a couple of gifts so I waited until Monday to start -- only to have three boxes of gifts arrive on Monday and Tuesday!  So, we had double Gormukkah days.  My people were thrilled.  We let them open gifts in the morning and evening.  They loved it.

Thank you everyone for helping us celebrate another wonderful Gormukkah!!