The stockings are hung
The presents are wrapped
The carols are sung
The HOUSE is warmed by a "fire"
The family Christmas book opened and read
The ground outside is blanketed with snow
The children are washed, in their Christmas jammies, in bed
We had fun with our FRIENDS
We are full of ham, potatoes, and pie
It is Christmas Eve again
It's hard to believe another year has passed by
We are incredibly blessed.
It really feels like a perfect Christmas so far this year.
I love the feeling of Christmas - the excitement and anticipation leading up to it, and the quiet peaceful night waiting for Santa to come. (What better bedtime bribe is there than Santa? Whoever came up with that idea is GENIUS!)
I LOVE traditions and how they bring families together. My favorite family tradition of ours is our family hug. A small tradition, but my favorite nontheless. Whenever we have a family night - Family Home Evening, game night, holiday festivities - we end with a big family hug. I absolutely love it!
In our family now, Dave & I have tried to incorporate traditions from both of our families and add a few of our own. We still get the Christmas jammies. We still open presents on Christmas Eve. The presents opened on Christmas Eve are jammies and a family Christmas book that we read together that night. We have our yummy Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. We leave cookies & milk (egg nog this year) for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph, along with a note thanking Santa for coming and telling him Merry Christmas. This year we are attempting the sister sleepover (tradition from my family) - we'll see how that goes. We will be going to a Christmas brunch at Dave's aunts house (tradition from Dave's family) on Christmas morning that we are really looking forward to. We also get a family game and a family Christmas movie on Christmas day. Other than that, we will see what other traditions develop over the years.
The Christmas spirit obviously brings a feeling of love and appreciation for my family - the family I came from, the family Dave came from, and the family we have started together. It also brings an overwhelming love and appreciation for the Savior and His love for us. What a gift He gave us, that first Christmas being born to this earth to save us all. Because of him and his sacrifice for us, we are able to be with Him and with our families forever. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for that precious gift.
Merry Christmas
to all of you and may the spirit of Christmas
- love, family, & Christ -
be with you and your family this night and always.
If you have some special Christmas traditions, please share!
2 comments:
I love that you are doing this! We had a great time last night. Thank you for sending some of your Christmas with us!
We had the family brunch - of course. Yummy yummy food. You probably had similar food at your brunch! Something we did when the kids were little (but not anymore :-( ) was hide the Baby Jesus figures from all of the nativities and the kids had to find them before they opened presents on Christmas morning. We have 8 nativities - all of them child friendly - that's why I got them. Only one is breakable but it never was hidden in a "risky" type place - none of them *so* precious that little hands couldn't touch them whenever they wanted to. It was one of our attempts for helping them remember the greatest gift of all.
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