Christmas Traditions

I love it when Christmas falls on a Sunday.  It seems most appropriate.  My favorite Christmas was the time that we had eight o'clock church and Christmas was on Sunday.  We got up and going, showered and beautiful, marched right past the presents and went to Sacrament meeting.  The program was scriptures and music.  Then we went home to the rest of our Christmas day.  If I could, I would do that every Christmas day.  Anyway, here are some of our traditions, some are silly, some are not.

The first one is that we decorate the tree just as soon after Thanksgiving as possible.  Usually the day after.  I love decorating for Christmas and my living room looks warm and thoughtful when we get out all the decorations.  We have many ornaments that have special meaning.  Jared's blue track ornament, a basketball hoop and ball that reminds me of my dad, we also have a bell with an owl on it to remind us of Mike's sister Judy just to name a few. We have manger scenes and the Star to help us to remember what the season is all about.

On Christmas Eve we make wassail and hot chocolate and read the Real Story of Christmas by Cleon Skousen. My dad read this story every Christmas Eve while I was growing up. This takes about thirty five minutes to read out loud.  This year Jacob put together a slide show of nativity scenes to watch while I read the story. 

Christmas day brings lots of traditions.  We have to sit at the top of the stairs until it is okay to come down all together.  Spike hands out presents one by one while we oh and ah and say thanks.

I think on of my favorite traditions is to have Christmas breakfast.  Get out the china and fancy glasses for this one.  We have almost every kind of breakfast food we can think of, muffins, pancakes, fruity syrups, bacon, sausage, eggs and all sort of juices.  The best part is the company that comes over to share the day with us.  Mom and Bob come, usually Grandma Grant comes but this year we were sort of sickish and we didn't want to share that with her. Although this year was slim, in the past we have had over 20 people sitting at the table. (or at least nearby)

Here is the last tradition that not all the family likes.  I take down the Christmas tree and decorations usually the day after Christmas.  By that time, I am ready for it to be gone and some serious cleaning to be done.  That doesn't sound very fun but for me it is totally necessary.