MERRY CHRISTMAS

Our best wishes to you and your family this holiday season. May the blessings pour upon you as you await to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior on--Christmas Day!! Or in our case, we start our celebration on Christmas Eve.

It was tradition for me, growing up, to have a big to-do on Christmas Eve, and then Christmas Day we just got to sleep in late. My mom would start cooking early in the day, so that we could enjoy yummy "panes con pavo" for dinner. I remember it smelled so good in the house, and I wouldn't eat much of anything all day waiting for our meal, so that I could truly indulge and savor every bite. After dinner, we would either stay in and be together as a family, or we would head out to friend's homes who were having a Christmas party. I've always enjoyed being in the company of friends, but there was always, and still is a certain feeling of intimacy and closeness to being alone, as a family, on Christmas Eve. My favorite Christmases growing up, were the ones when we didn't have to be anywhere, we could just stay in and enjoy the evening, before heading to bed. I remember my parents would wake us up at midnight, so that we could see what "el niño Dios" or baby Jesus had brought for us. That was always so much fun--I don't remember ever having trouble getting up after being in deep slumber--or maybe I never did fall asleep and lay awake waiting for mom and dad to come in my room. As we got older, we got to actually stay up late and wait for midnight. The rule was that we couldn't open any gifts before midnight, we had "technically" wait for Christmas Day to begin!!! That's what I remember doing growing up...

Now that I'm older, and have a family of my own, I get excited around the holidays, because it's time for OUR family traditions. We don't live close to family, so that makes it more important for us to make our own Christmas traditions. I'll share with you just a few :

• We go see Christmas lights at Rhema, a local church that puts out an unbelievable display of lights every year
• This year we went to the Christmas Train. It's in Dry Gulch OK, and it was pretty neat. You ride on the train, listening to the narrated story of Jesus' birth, and watching the amazing paintings that are set out on the train route.
• This year we also got dressed up to get a christmas family portrait done. With a photographer in house, it's much more convenient to get this task accomplished, although by NO means easier :).
• We don't travel for Christmas, but rather stay home and enjoy being together.
• We eat a home cooked meal, before heading out to the candle light service at church.
• We bake a chocolate on chocolate birthday cake for Jesus. This year, Kateli has really gotten into the excitement of baking and celebrating Jesus' birthday.
• We put the kids down for bed at their normal bedtime (maybe a bit later than usual sometimes)
• In the past, Dan and I stay up, and we each get to open a gift on Christmas Eve, at MIDNIGHT (to follow in MY tradition) before heading to bed--we'll see how it works out this year :)
• On Christmas morning, it's all about the kids opening their gifts after sitting down around the tree listening to daddy read the story of Jesus's birth from the bible
• The rest of Christmas day is just enjoying our gifts and rejoicing in the good news!!

May this Christmas be filled with joy for you and your loved ones!!