It seems, however, there is another reason so many of us enjoy Christmas and it comes down to one word. . .traditions. It is a time we look back and remember, while at the same time making new memories to carry forward with us in time.
This year was a unique combination of keeping and breaking traditions at our house. It began as contemplations were made regarding decorations. At our house we decorate full force and rarely take decorations down until mid-January. This year, however, we knew we would be leaving for Bismarck shortly after the holidays, so it seemed practical to hold back on some of the traditional decorating. The difficulty was trying to decide what to put up and what to leave in the totes. Everything carries a memory, and in the end most of it went up, including two trees, one upstairs, which features my Nativity ornaments and the other in the basement with a vast assortment of ornaments collected over the years.
The rest of the Nativity collection underwent a tighter scrutiny, and perhaps about half of them remained in storage. Last year all of them saw daylight when we had a Community Nativity Display, so this year it seemed okay to let some of them rest. The "window clings" were set aside for the grandchildren to put up, but they got "lost in the shuffle" and never did find their way to the bathroom mirror, dishwasher and microwave where they usually spend the holidays.
It was our year to share "real Christmas" with our daughter and her family. (On the years they are with her husband's family, we find a time, early or late, and celebrate together.) They arrived on Friday evening, bringing lots of Christmas joy and excitement with them, and we settled in to enjoy the holidays together.
A tradition which began when our children were little is an annual "Cousins Cookie Bake". With an extended family of over 100, there are usually lots of cousins and second cousins around to join us. This year, however, it was only our four little bakers and their mom who joined in on the fun. Our oldest grandson was the most creative this year, making a Santa out of six different cookies, but the granddaughter qualified for the "most heavily decorated" cookies! My contribution was a set of Nativity cookies, complete with Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, a shepherd and his sheep, three Wisemen and a host of angels. Later on, when we were down to the last of the dough, it was decided we also needed to bake three "gifts" for the Wisemen!
The usual routine on Christmas Eve is to attend services at our church, followed by a meal and then off to a gathering of extended family at the home of one of my husband's brothers. This tradition got twisted in many ways this year. Our pastor was away, leaving us with no service on Christmas Eve. We opted to attend the Lutheran church which I attended growing up instead, but their service was at 6, instead of our usual 4 or 5 o'clock. It was decided we had best eat prior to church. Also, very few of the extended family was here, so the gathering at the brother-in-law's house was cancelled. I did miss the singing together as a family, especially the song, "Come On Ring Those Bells"! My mother-in-law plays piano by ear, and could really get us singing, accompanied by the little ones jingling sets of bells. She had a different kind of Christmas this year, too, as she wasn't feeling well.
Another tradition we try to keep is pictures by the Christmas tree. We took a few prior to eating, which turned out to be a good thing. By the time we got back home, the youngest was tired and in no mood to take pictures. We managed to get a few, but never did accomplish one of all of us together.
Prior to opening gifts, we like to read the Christmas story from Luke 2. With modern day technology, we no longer require a Bible to do so, and this year our son-in-law did the reading from his iPod. Big yawns let us know it had been a busy day, but things perked up as we tackled the massive pile of gifts, opening them one by one so we could savor the moment of each response.
Christmas Day there are always "stocking gifts" waiting in the morning, followed by the traditional assembling of Lego sets received the night before.
It had been our plan to have my brothers and their families over as dinner guests, but wintery weather prevented them from coming. Although things didn't turn out exactly the way we originally intended, we felt the important thing was having our kids and grandkids all under one roof making memories. We even got them one extra night because of the Christmas storm!
As my husband prepared for our church service on Christmas Day, a thought crossed his mind. What would it be like if, instead of the massive pile of gifts, we each only received one. After all, God's original gift was just one baby in a manger. . .and He was enough!
