The Monday before Christmas... where oh where did the year go? In less than 2 weeks it will be 2010. When I got my current ATM card about 6 years ago and I had to say 2010 for the year of expiration it sounded so far away and now here it is. On to the point of my post today. Liz talked a little about Christmas last week, but since I already had some of this written I am going to go ahead and post this as it goes great with what she had to say.
Family, how is your family time divided? Do you live near all your relatives? Do you have to travel 3,000 or more miles to see them at the holidays? We are so blessed to have our immediate family within a 40 minute drive from us. When my husband and I first got married we worked out a "holiday schedule" and this has worked well for us. It has adjusted a little since our parents have remarried but we just know what days we do what around the holidays. It starts with the first weekend of the month with Making Meatpies - here is a layout I did earlier this year showing us making them last December (did not take the camera this year).
Then the Saturday before Christmas is when we get together with my mom, her husband, and the rest of my family (grandma, aunt, sister, cousins, etc.) - so we just celebrated this past Saturday. Then on Christmas Eve we go to Adam's mom's house - we socialize and eat the meatpies we fixed up earlier in the month - along with other appetizer type foods. Each year we tell the story of Jesus' birth and play games as a group. Christmas morning is now spent at our home with our little girls but then we do head to his mom's again for Santa presents.
What is it that you do each year with family that sticks out? Have you scrapped it? Remember it is not always the big events that need remember the simple things that happen each year are important to remember as well. May you have a holiday season filled with peace, love and charity.
Krisi