Traditions

Christmas is full of traditions that very from culture to culture and family to family.  I was thinking of all the traditions that I have and realized that one of the things I love about this time of year is all the traditions we observe.

Christmas begins for me with A Festival of Carols - a Christmas program that our choir at church puts on every year.  It's a lot of work, but I love spending time with my fellow choir members, learning the Christmas music, singing with the orchestra and presenting the Christmas story.

We also let each kids (and me, too) pick a new ornament for our Christmas tree every year.  It's fun to see what they pick each year and how it changes with their age and interests.  We have superheroes, princesses, ballerinas and many more.  They love pulling out their ornaments each year and remembering what they've picked from past years.

Our next tradition is to celebrate Christmas with my parents and siblings.  We get together and we each buy little gifts for each of the kids' stockings.  The adults have their own stockings, too, but we each are in charge of filling one of them.  It's so much fun to see the little things that we've picked up for each other through the year.  My parents give the kids their gifts and while the children play with their new toys, we play games together.

Next is Christmas Eve.  We meet at my parents' house and then we walk to church for the candlelight service.  We celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday either before or after depending on when we can all get together.  Even that has a tradition.  My family always gets him an Arizona Wildcat bowl game shirt - if we're going to a bowl game that year.  We have appetizers for dinner and then my mom has a treasure hunt for the grandkids.  This is a new tradition, but the kids love it.  They find a little chest filled with small toys and candies.

Christmas day get to open their stockings first.  After that we get dressed and get the food ready.  While the food for lunch is cooking, we open gifts.  In my family, we take turns with the youngest starting.  Then we head to either my grandparents' home or Joel's parents' home.  This year we'll be with my grandparents.  We have lunch and open gifts and then spend the rest of the day watching football, playing games and enjoying family time.  Whichever family we didn't get to be with on Christmas day, we'll find another time to celebrate with them.  (My kids love getting so many Christmases!)

Throughout all of this, we have three advent calendars (one for each of our kids).  They take turns doing each one.  One of our calendars is a garland of little stockings that have a little candy in each one.  Another is a quilt made my aunt and it has a tree with buttons on it and each day they get to hang a fabric ornament on the buttons.  My favorite though is our Jesse Tree advent.  We read a devotion each night and then there is an ornament that corresponds to the lesson for that night.  We start at the beginning of the Bible and end at the birth of Christ, showing how the Old Testament leads up to the coming of the Messiah.  I love how we can end each day focusing the busyness of the season back to Jesus.

Last year I started moving my wise men from our nativity around every day, but this year, their journey was more scripted and planned out.  I posted Bible verses beside them so the kids would know what each stage of their journey was meant to demonstrate.  Some were prophesies, some were parts of the magi's story and some were names for Jesus.  It was a lot of fun and the kids loved looking for the wise men every day.  They had to tell me who was the first to find them every day and my four year old made us read her the verse that was posted beside them every day.

I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and hope that you enjoy your own family traditions.  If you haven't already done it, I hope that you pick up my Christmas novella and allow me to be a small part of your Christmas.

Christmas Angel

Dedication: Christmas Angel

When I was trying to decide who to dedicate my Christmas novella to, I was thinking about the people who help to make Christmas such a special time.  There are many people who do that, but one stood out to me and that was my grandma, Fay Smith.  

My grandma is a person who truly has a servant's heart.  We always have our extended family Christmas celebration at my grandma's house and even though we all pitch in, inevitably it is my grandma who does the large share of the work.  She makes her home ready for us and it's a place that we all think of as an extension of our own homes.  She makes Christmas treats for all of us:  divinity, peanut butter fudge, sugar cookies, bon bons, almond bark - and more.  We can never get her to sit down and let the rest of us clean, so we all just pitch in and try to make it not as much work for her.  As we play games later in the evening, she usually comes and sits with us.  She doesn't really enjoy playing them.  She just enjoys being with her family.  As we play, she often takes care of the little great grandchildren so that we can keep playing.  After we leave, she cleans the house again, making Christmas a long day.  Yet when we've offered to move the Christmas celebration my grandma would rather host it.

Why does my grandma do all this?  It's love.  It's love that compels her to go above and beyond for her family.  It's love that drives her to bake everyone's favorite Christmas treat.  It's love that won't let her leave the cleaning to the rest of us.  It's love that brings her over to watch us play games and spend time with her family.  It's love for her grandkids and great grandkids that makes her take care of the little ones while we play.  But above all, it's love for her Savior that compels her to serve wholeheartedly as to the Lord.  

My grandma loves Christmas, not because of the gifts, the goodies, the time with family (although she enjoys that, too), but because it's when we remember when our Savior was born.  My grandma has been such an example of what a true servant looks like.  She's humble, does things without expecting or wanting praise, puts her best into what she does, is willing to serve wherever He leads.  I think my grandma's life verse could be this, "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31).  She's my Christmas angel.

Christmas Angel