Christmas Traditions

The period from Thanksgiving to Christmas is one of my favorite times during the year, as I'm sure many of you would agree. It's exciting because there is so much to look forward to, plenty to do, and when you have down time at home...you can enjoy relaxing with the Christmas tree lit up and that soft glow all around. I just love it!

More than anything, I look forward to the traditions at Christmastime. Until I was in high school, I woke up EVERY Christmas morning,at my grandparents' house in little Burt, Iowa. It's tucked away in the middle of no where, but it was the people that I was surrounded by that made it so fun. You see, my mom is one of 7 kiddos, so there were always at least 20+ people packed into their house at once. It makes for a great sight when you come down on Christmas morning--not that I'm into presents--but they were always stacked up from wall to wall about waist high...it revealed just how many people we would be celebrating the day with.

What do 20+ people do when they're packed into a house over Christmas? Well, we come from a long lineage of competitivenss (my spell checker is telling me that isn't a word, but I disagree). Anyway, we play games. And when I say we play games, we are hard core. If you ever want to learn a game that will drive you crazy because you can never win it consistently, then you should play Progressive Rummy with us. There is just something about it that makes you play again and again even though you got beat by at least 300 points the day before.

Perhaps it is the "goodies" that go along with the games....puppy chow, kringla, party mix, sugar cookies, party mix, grandma's homemade caramels, party mix, cream wafers, etc. The food is endless with our family, and it's all wonderful. There is a counter at my grandma's house dedicated to just sweets. It's pure bliss.

Christmas movies are also very, very good. I think our family's top 5 Christmas movies are (in no particular order): It's a Wonderful Life (which I used to think was extremely boring, but I now find extremely touching); National Lampoons Christmas Vacation; Home Alone 1 and 2 (as kids, I think we rented these movies just about every time we went to Blockbuster, but now even my dad requests to watch them every Christmas); and White Christmas (another that I did not come to appreciate until a few years ago). I don't think it's the movies themselves, but watching them all together and laughing at the same parts with the people you love. It doesn't get much better.

My final thought on Christmas traditions is that they do evolve and change over the years. Many of these traditions are still a part of Christmas each year, but maybe not in the true form that they originated in. And you know what??? It's OK. In fact, it's great because now we are adding people to our family and I've also added an entire other family, and I get to enjoy their traditions too. It's totally worth it! I am so looking forward to quality time with both the Nervigs and Kleppes this year!!

Besides, we all know the real meaning of the season anyway....we're so blessed that our God loved us enough to leave heaven in its perfectness and come down to our imperfect world. THAT is the real highlight that we celebrate each year at this time. A lot of people keep talking about "keeping Christ in Christmas," but I think of it differently....Christ is Christmas. There is no way to take Him out of it. And that gets me excited for December 25th! 16 days to go!

These are not all of our traditions. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I think this entry is long enough though! WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE HOLIDAY TRADITIONS??? I'D LOVE TO HEAR 'EM!