This is one of my favourite days....maybe my favourite day in the calendar year. There's something about the anticipation that comes with this day that I love. I have such wonderful memories of Christmas Eve as a child. After supper we would walk to church, the snow crunching under our boots. Our church was an old one with bells and they would toll as we made our way there. We would walk slowly and admire the lights reflected in the sometimes 8-10 foot snow banks of our little alpine town. The service was always candlelit and sometimes included a special children's story. On our walk home, I would rush ahead, keeping a close eye on the sky for any signs of flying reindeer. I never saw any, but I was always sure I could hear jingle bells in the distance. I didn't sleep well as a child on Christmas Eve...the excitement of what lay ahead was just too much for me.
As an adult, I still love the wonderful anticipation of this day, but it is now reflected for me in the eyes of my girls. We don't have snow or tolling bells, but we've made for ourselves our own traditions. The night before Christmas Eve....last night, the girls always sleep "out" beside the tree. It's a simple thing, but they love camping in the family room and falling asleep while the tree lights shimmer. We always go to our church's candlelight service and rush home or to my Aunt's to open a few gifts Christmas Eve. This tradition is thanks to my Grannie, who always wondered why we shouldn't open them....after all, it's only a matter of a few hours!!
There are also new traditions like checking the NORAD site for the whereabouts of Santa. It's always a good geography lesson as we watch him traverse the continents. We have cinnamon buns for breakfast on Christmas Eve and read the account of Jesus' birth before our day starts. This year we've started a new tradition...an Advent project. It came about as a desire to help our kids focus on the needs of others during the Christmas season. This year the girls, through their homemade card sales, raised over $200 for Hope International to help a family in a developing country.
Traditions root and ground us. They give us something to hang onto, even when the world around us seems uncertain. I thank God for the wonderful memories of Christmas past and I look forward with anticipation to making new memories and traditions with my family.
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3 comments:
Christmas traditions are so fun it is fun to start new ones too, we look forward tp doing theat with our family too. :)
Merry Christmas to the 4 of you!
I'm so glad to be part of the tradition. I have memories of my childhood as well. I must tell you more about your dad and the other three of us at Christmas time in Trail.
Love you.
Congratulations to the girls for raising so much money for the needs of someone else, instead of their own wants... that's so beautiful and wonderful!
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