We were at my parents' house last night for our family Christmas. It's always fun to get together with my parents and brother and sister and remember how Christmases were when we were younger and at home. One of my favorite memories was when my dad would read the Christmas story from the Bible and we would all sing Christmas carols. I also loved going to our church's candlelight Christmas eve service. It was always fun to see all the families come together who had sons or daughters off at college or grown and moved away but had come back home for Christmas. Once our Christmas eve service was over, we always went home for yummy food and one gift to open before heading off to bed. We had a two-story house and had strict instructions not to leave our rooms during Christmas eve night. On Christmas morning, Mom and Dad would come up the stairs waking us up singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," and we all barreled down the stairs, anxious to see what treasures were ours. Christmases were always special. As a lot of moms and dads do, ours were up late on Christmas eve getting things ready for the next morning. One year, they were up really late and realized we would wake up within a couple of hours. They thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and wake us up in the middle of the night to do "Christmas" so we would all go back to bed and sleep past five or six in the morning. Well, their plan pretty much backfired, as we had just gotten to sleep good when they came up the stairs singing and expecting our normal excitement. When we could hardly hold our eyes open or our heads up, they were disappointed, to say the least, at our lack of enthusiasm! They kept trying to encourage us to show excitement, and we mustered all we could with unfavorable results. We remembered that story last night and shared a few laughs. It's so funny now to see our own children and how much they remind us of ourselves when we were their age. We're starting our own traditions now. The candlelight service is still a favorite, and we have continued the tradition of eating yummy food after the service. I remember that some of our gifts were wrapped and some just sat out, like our "Santa" gifts. That's how we did our kids' gifts this morning...Santa gifts were unwrapped, and Mommy and Daddy gifts were wrapped. It's so much fun to see the excitement on our kids' faces when they walk in the room and see their treasures! It thrilled me most today to hear Luke sing "Happy Birthday, Jesus" to Kelvin's family.
So, what are your Christmas memories and traditions? Our family wishes all of you a very blessed Christmas, and hope you know the reason we celebrate...Jesus. He is the ultimate gift and brings us peace, hope and love still today. Happy birthday, Jesus!