Christmas 2009 is now Christmas Past

We had a wonderful Christmas. As we celebrated the Saviour's birth we held that which is dearest to us close... our family and friends and lots of love. Here are some of my favorite images from the Christmas of 2009.

Tradition

As I have said before, tradition is important to me. My two very favorite family traditions are over now for another year. The first was last night when my siblings and their children came over to celebrate Christmas together. This tradition started before I was born when my mom and her siblings would go to my Grandma McColls on Christmas eve to celebrate together. Although we spent a lot of time at Grandma's this was the one time all of my aunts and uncles would be there at the same time. I remember eating my Uncle Bert's rice pudding and getting to drink egg nog out of special mugs. My grandma always had one of those silver Christmas trees that she only decorated in blue glass ornaments. Feeling nostalgic this year I tried buying one on ebay but I was outbid.

After my grandma died the Christmas eve party moved to my parents where we went each year until my mom's death. When our boys were small we would spend the night and be there for Christmas morning. We continued this tradition until my mom passed away.

And so the party moved to our house. But since our family has grown so large we now meet the Sunday before Christmas. This accommodates all of the new young couples who must divide their time between extended families. This year we closed the patio in so the party could spill out there. The boys are all so big and with little ones it just makes sense. I also changed the menu this year. Instead of cooking a big meal we had pizza. I don't know why we didn't do this years ago. Everyone enjoyed it and we had enough flavors for every palate. Of course I had to make my famous chili (don't ask for the recipe.... it's very top secret!). And there were lots of cookies and candy to satisfy the sweet tooth.

Tommy gets to play Santa (he took over the honor after my dad passed away) and he does his best to do the part. This year for my gift to everyone, I put together a cookbook of recipes from my mom's cookbooks ... things that she and my dad cooked often. I included pictures of all of us and I think everyone liked it.

My other favorite tradition was one I started when Matthew was a tiny baby. We deliver goodies to friends the Monday before Christmas. As the boys got older we started "caroling". All of our friends know we are not a musical bunch so the caroling usually is just singing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas." When the boys were small, I used to buy matching sweaters for all of us to wear. You know the term "ugly Christmas sweater"? Well we had several of them. Three boys in the back seat of a Toyota balancing trays of cookies usually went very quickly from angelic to a wrestling match and by the end of our two hour self imposed time limit there were few smiling faces. But it was an important tradition to me and the one that I look forward to more than any other each year.

The years that we had missionaries out the boys who were home had to pick up the slack and there was the one year when Carl had to go with us by himself.... a sad sight indeed.

This year we were just a quartet. We borrowed Andrew for the evening and together with Terry, Tommy and I we did pretty good - well we sounded as good as we ever did. Terry just got a new guitar and taught himself to "play" (a relative term) We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Andrew accompanied him with the tambourine. And Tommy good-naturedly goes along with the madness.
Thank goodness we have friends who love us and put up with this annual interruption to their family night (or the football game). Someday I'll get everyone to go again. Maybe we'll rent a limo so everyone fits in one car.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to you and yours and may all your favorite traditions carry you through the season.