Only 360 shoppingdays till Christmas!

give or take a couple days...
I don't want to start thinking about next Christmas. I want to reflect a little longer on this past one. I love Christmas time. Although our worship of Christ ought to be year around, there are some special family times that are specially memorable because of the holiday. I know things will change as our children get older; but for now, I really enjoy the special days of the Christmas season with our family.

Every family has their own traditions on Christmas, and I really love ours:
Christmas Eve: We normally give one gift, either to the entire family or each individual. It is usually similar, such as PJ's or devotional books, etc. This year, we didn't do it because we had invested more money in our Thanksgiving vacation. We would also, normally, go to a Christmas Eve service; but with Christmas falling on Sunday, we did not have one. However, the other traditions remained. We ate ponzerat (not sure how to spell it, but this is how I pronounce it), which is fried dough with cheese in it. Teresa does a great job in making them, and they are a family favorite on Christmas Eve! Then, we watch the movie: "It's a Wonderful Life". It used to be that we would all sleep by the Christmas tree, but now we sleep on the couches and carpeted floors of the basement. Well, we older ones tend to make our way into our own beds at some point (some sooner than others!). Once everyone is in bed, Teresa and I stuff every one's stockings, that are hanging by the fireplace.

Christmas Day: With our old age, we put a 7 a.m. time on the earliest that the younger ones are allowed to get up and get everyone else up! So, at 7, we hear the footsteps and everyone starts getting everyone else up. Once we are all gathered, we go to get our stockings and bring them back to the living room (by the tree). Everyone opens the stockings at the same time (well, Teresa and I usually wait until the kids are done); and it is a fun way to begin Christmas morning. Teresa talks about growing up and getting fruit and/or nuts in her stocking. How things have changed! Although presents will be delayed for several hours, it always us to enjoy watching the kids receive some smaller, needed, and fun things.

Next, everyone gets dressed and we have breakfast, which includes Teresa making cinnamon rolls (mmm, mmm, good!). This year, with Christmas falling on a Sunday, we had our family worship time before breakfast. This year, a few weeks leading up to Christmas, we used the "Adornments", with are cardboard ornaments, representing parts of the Christmas story, from Family Life (A Christian organization with many great resources). We read Scripture, and a description of part of the story. Then, one of the kids would put an ornament on. There were 12 in all. We closed our worship time with all of us praying and singing praise to God for His wonderful gift!

It was a blessing, then, for our family to go to church together and worship Jesus on His birthday with the rest of our church family! Even though many were gone traveling or celebrating elsewhere, it was wonderful to be with others and worship God on that special morning. Mostly, we read Scripture and sang Christmas carols. It was great!

Now it was time to open the gifts. We have the younger ones hand out the gifts to every one's personal "spot". Once all the gifts are handed out, we go one by one, youngest to oldest, opening one gift per cycle. The rule is that we all watch the person who is opening the gift rather than thinking about our own. One of my favorite parts is watching our kids get up from their spot and with a thank you, go hug the person who just gave them the gift!

After that, it is usually a relaxed day, with kids playing with their gifts, eating food and just enjoying one another. On this particular day, we also invited someone from the church to come over and enjoy Christmas dinner with us. That was a special blessing as well.

Thank you God for these special times at Christmas, with family; and for these memories that will last a lifetime!