Christmas is by far my favorite time of year. I'm the type of person who starts listening to Christmas music in October and holds onto in well into January...or even February. It's such an amazing time of year. I love the cold air, the snow (when we get it...not had it much this year), and the happy attitudes of the folks that you meet.
Christmas is the time of year when we celebrate the birth of our Savior and everyone joins in. I know that there are those in the world who refuse the think of Christmas as the birth of our Savior and choose to celebrate without referring to Christ, but that doesn't change the fact that Christmas is a celebration of Christ's birth. That's the reason we celebrate Christmas. So, even those who don't want to have anything to do with church or with God...are still celebrating the birth of His Son whether they mean to or not! Somehow, I just love that. It's the one holiday that you simply can't change the reason for the season. It's a beautiful thing.
This Friday is one of my all time favorite Christmas traditions in our family. Christmas Eve Eve. Now for most folks, it's probably full of last minute shopping and finishing up things for the parties and family gatherings that are sure to be happening on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but for us...it's a bit different.
See, many years ago, my Aunt and Uncle needed a time to wrap Christmas presents when their boys weren't around. So, when they were quite young, my two cousins started going to Grandma's house on Christmas Eve Eve to spend the night. The boys would be out of the house and my Aunt and Uncle could wrap presents. However, over the years, it's become much more than that. It became a time that all the cousins (when we are close enough to attend) would go to Grandma's house to spend the night. There are only four of us cousins (Riley, Corey, my brother Rick and myself) on my Dad's side of the family and over the years, because of distance, we never got to be together much, so it's always been a special time to just all be together.
Now, all four of us are grown and Rick and Riley are married. But that hasn't stopped the tradition. Their wives (Jenn and Laura) attend too and now there are six of us when we all get to go and we still spend the night with Grandma and we still look forward to it. It's a special time...really the only time that we get Grandma all to ourselves and we LOVE it! Grandma looks forward to it too. It's funny because her friends are always amazed that the Grandkids that are coming are all adults...and that we still come even though we are adults. But we love it!
This year, though we can't all attend, we will still have a ball. We're going to make Christmas goodies and homemade cards to go with our gifts this year. There will be much laughter, teasing, and competitive game playing. But most of all, there will be much love shared as we spend time together.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are always such special times in our families and I always look forward to them, but there's just something extra special about Christmas Eve Eve.
I hope your Christmas Celebrations are filled with joy, love and good fellowship as we all celebrate the coming of our King!
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
