Christmas 2011

Wow! Where does the time go? I can't believe the the last time I posted something was back in August. I have tons of pictures to post but don't have the time so I guess I will start with the most recent, Christmas! We had a nice Christmas holiday this year. We were invited to a holiday party on Christmas Eve which we attended. There were lots of great food and children running around like crazy. We came home early, put Arianna to bed, then Steve, Christian, and I stayed up and read from the Christmas story from Luke and then read from my grandmother's journal about her Christmas memories. Her memories reminds us of why we have some of the traditions we have and brings back the simplicity that Christmas used to be for them. They were so happy to wake up in the morning with peppermint sticks and oranges in their stocking and almost always had no toys or if they got anything it was homemade and simple. Some of our Christmas traditions that we have came from my grandmother. When she was growing up she remembered having cheese and crackers and peppermint sticks. These were something special to have on Christmas day. So, every Christmas we make up a platter with cheese slices, crackers, and candy canes. Also, I always stuff the stockings with apples, oranges and bananas because these were things that were hard to get back in the day and were very precious to my grandmother and her siblings. It was a rare treat to have a nice juicy orange or to bite into a crisp sweet apple or to chomp down on a nice yellow banana. I think Christian's favorite tradition is to be able to open up one gift on Christmas Eve. Santa was very good to the kids this year and I believe the kids had a great Christmas. It was a very relaxed day for all of us. We didn't go anywhere and didn't do any work around the house. We just had fun with the kids and spent some good quality time with the family. It was great!