Sister Christy came up with this week's assignment:
" As we wind down from another holiday season with family reflect on how the celebrating has changed over the years." "
You can find Christy's blog post here and Bill's blog post is here.
Christmas is always one of my favorite times of the year. I love decorating, shopping for gifts, planning and cooking meals, and spending time with family and friends.
When Paul and I go married we lived over in Montana, and would travel to Kellogg for Christmas to be with both sets of parents, who both lived in Kellogg.
After Molly, our oldest daughter was born, we decided Christmas in Kellogg needed to be an every other year thing.
Also, the first year Molly was born, we stayed in Montana, and started our special family tradition of having a meal from another country on Christmas Eve, and making food from that country, and finding out how the country celebrates Christmas, and often doing some of those traditions with the family.
At first we only did our special dinner when we stayed home for Christmas. But then we started doing it on the years we went to Kellogg as well.
During the first year of Molly's life, we moved from Montana to Meridian, Idaho, and would stay in Meridian one year, then again go to Kellogg. Eventually Paul's parents moved to Meridian from Kellogg. So one year we would celebrate with my family, and the next year stay in Meridian, and celebrate with Paul's family.
When we moved to Kellogg in 2000, we decided Christmas would be a time to be at our own home, and have our own traditions.
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| The girls received footie pajamas and vests. |
So for the past 14 years, we have hosted our Christmas Eve dinner, having dinner from another country. Often we would invite other friends and family to join us for this dinner. Then we would attend Christmas Eve service at church.
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| Christmas Eve Moroccan Dinner |
A few years ago, both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner started being at our house. But we would still go over to Mom's house on Christmas morning and share breakfast and open gifts under Mom's Christmas tree.
Most of the time my sister Christy and her husband Everett would come for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Depending on schedules, brother Bill would sometimes be at Mom's house with his wife Debbie. But sometimes they would stay in Eugene. Or they would spend Christmas with their children.
Another big part of our family's Christmas tradition is going Christmas caroling. Some way or another we try and carol to friends and neighbors sometime before Christmas. The past few years we had a caroling party, but, because of Molly's early departure to Colorado, our caroling this year was mostly just our family, and we went out on the day we celebrated our early family Christmas.
This year was a different year, with big changes. Our oldest daughter Molly traveled to Colorado for Christmas, so we had an early family Christmas.
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| Early Christmas Fondue Dinner |
Mom has been having some pain issues, so to make things easier for her, our family did not go to her house for any kind of Christmas festivities this year. Everything was at our house. Even though I know it was the best decision for mom this year, it was really hard not having that time at Mom's house opening gifts and having coffee and special breakfast items at Mom's house on Christmas morning. I always really enjoyed that time.
As things changed for our families as Paul and I got married and had children, things will continue to change for our family traditions as our three daughters grow up and create their own lives and their own family traditions. It will be fun to see what things they create on their own, and what things remain the same.
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| Christmas Day |
And celebrating the birth of Jesus.
1 comment:
What a great post! I love reading about your traditions, how some started, and especially how they have evolved over the years. The past few years, I'd been mourning the loss of what ours used to be, but this year I decided to enjoy our downsized Christmas and it was wonderful! You always inspire me to look at things a little differently! :)
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