The dad's side of my family's Christmas tradition is torturous. We all go to my grandparents' house on Christmas Eve to open presents, and there are always a ton of people there; last year I counted 17. It doesn't help that my aunt and uncle have six kids, and four of them are still quite young. There are always three or four dogs there, too. And we have to open presents in a certain order. You have to give somebody that hasn't opened one in a while one of their presents to open, then watch as they open it, people take pictures, and then give somebody else a present, watch as they open it, people take pictures...it takes hours. Then we go to my dad's house and do it all over again. We usually start around 6 p.m. and don't finish unitl after midnight. I always wondered what it was like to be able to get up on Christmas morning and open your presents with wild abandon. I never got to do that.