Celebrating Christmas

Welcome everyone to a new Monday blog post.  I am happy y'all made it over for a visit.  Today, I plan to talk about my family's Christmas traditions and things about Christmas that are chiefly special to me.  In the comments, I would love to hear about some of your Christmas traditions.

First and foremost, Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ.  Jesus is eternal from everlasting to everlasting, but when He was born of Mary, He took on human flesh, thus becoming fully God and fully human. He came to be the Savior of the world, to live a perfect life and then die on the cross for the sin of all who would believe in Him.  That is the most important reason to celebrate this time of year.  As I was growing up, it was my family's tradition to read from the Bible, Luke 2.  This tells the story of Jesus' birth.  As a child, I didn't understand why we should read that before we opened any of our presents.  The chapter seemed sooooo long to me, but as an adult, I am truly thankful that my parents taught me that Christmas is about Jesus.  There would be no reason to celebrate, if He had not come.  We still read Luke 2 in my home, not necessarily before presents, but it has been important for us to teach our children the true meaning of Christmas.  It warms my heart to watch my grandchildren being taught now, too.

I love giving gifts.  Thinking about each person on my list, their likes, interests, needs, wants, personalities, etc., is important to me.  I enjoy picturing them opening the gifts and hope they realize the love that went into them.  If I'm ever forced to choose a gift quickly or without thinking it through, I feel a little sad that I have not been able to put the thought and love into it that I wanted to.  Receiving gifts is fun, too.  Even little gifts, if they are given with love, mean so much to me.  I hate to feel as if a gift is given out of a feeling of obligation.  Did you guess that my love language is gifts? 😄  How do you feel about gift giving? Some people don't care about it at all.  They just want to get it over with or they think it a waste of time and money.  A gift doesn't even have to be a thing, though, it can be an experience or an act of service. A nice gift for me from you, would be for you to push that follow button over there ↗ and the submit button over there ↖. 🎄You need a gift, too? Ok, how about this...be the first one to follow me, email me your name and address, then recommend @sandykayslawson on facebook and I will send you a $10 gift card to @Chick-fil-A. May the gift giving begin! 

Usually my family waits to decorate and put up a tree after classes are over, tests have been taken, graded and grades turned in (my husband is a teacher).  When those things are done, we feel like we can truly relax and enjoy the season.  This time we are also waiting for our renovations to be finished before we completely decorate, but we did start on some of it yesterday.  Since we decorate so late, I leave them up until after the new year before I put them away, so that I can enjoy them longer.  When do you decorate and put away? Some people start celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving, but I don't even want to hear a Christmas song until Thanksgiving is over.

This year will be different for my family. Two of my kids married this year, so I only have one 17 year old son left at home. My oldest has been married for 6 years.  With only one child left at home, I'm not sure what our Christmas Day will look like, but I'm sure we will all try to get together at some point over the holidays. Our old ways of celebrating the day are just memories now, really good memories, though.  I am excited to see how my children will celebrate in their own families and the traditions they will start together with their spouses and children. We will need to change how we do things.  It's a little sad, but I am happy for my children and the lives they are building and the families they are making.  God has blessed us so much.  In the past, Santa Claus would have all the kid's presents set in their own special spot in the Living Room. No child was allowed in that room after they went to bed on Christmas Eve, until their Daddy lined them all up in the hallway in order of age with video camera and camera ready, the hallway door would be opened and the children could all run in to see what Santa had left for them in their stockings and special spots. All the rest of the presents to each other would be wrapped and waiting under the tree, to be opened after breakfast.

It's hard to talk about the holidays without talking about food.  We have favorites around here, that we must have or we feel like we have not truly celebrated.  Santa Claus pancakes have been our Christmas breakfast for as long as I can remember, since my children have been born.  I probably saw it in a magazine at some point, but I don't remember.  I make regular pancakes, but we decorate them to look like Santa with the ingredients on the table: bananas, berries, raisins, cherries, whipped cream, nuts, etc.  I always try to have special syrups, too, such as strawberry, blueberry, real maple, chocolate and pumpkin.  Everyone has always had fun making their Santa's and taking pictures of them, before eating them up. The main Christmas dinner must have, is the Turkey Wreath.  About 15 years or so ago, I went to a Pampered Chef party.  In their catalog, they had the recipe for the Turkey Wreath.  I made it for Christmas that year and the family loved it so much, it has been at the center of our Christmas table ever since. What do you have? Turkey? Ham? Trout? The sides on our table are pretty much the same every year, too, like Green Bean casserole and Sweet Potato casserole...the more traditional holiday foods.  Certain sweets "need" to be available also, such as, Pumpkin pie, Apple Pie, Fudge-peanut butter, chocolate and white chocolate, peppermint bark and sugar cookies cut into Christmas shapes and decorated. I would love to hear about some of your favorite Christmas foods.

Christmas is my favorite time of year.  Caroling, eggnog, hot chocolate, apple cider, decorations, presents and celebrating my Savior Jesus Christ. What's not to love?  Yes, the traffic is worse, the shopping is harder, the days are shorter, but the fun and joyful celebrations make up for all those things, at least for me. 

I hope you and your family all have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Remember to thank the Lord for all your blessings and the joy of this season. Without Christ there would be no Christmas.

I hope you enjoy this beautiful Christmas song "O Holy Night" by Celine Dion and Josh Groban. 

Updates: 

I did get my submission in on time last Monday for the short story contest I entered.  I don't know if they will contact me if I don't get 1st, 2nd or 3rd place, but I guess if I don't hear from them after a month or so, I'll assume I didn't place.  Of course, I would love to win, but if not, I would at least like some feedback to help me learn from my mistakes.  Also, I have received the feedback from one of my Beta Readers on my first 3 chapters of my novel Hope for Charity, so I am busy working on those corrections, which I believe will help me as I go through the rest of the chapters as well.  The renovations on my house are in full swing and I will plan to post some more pictures when they are done.

I hope to spend the next two Mondays just enjoying my family and I hope you will do the same.  I will plan to have another new blog post after the new year.  If you haven't read all of my past posts, and need something to read, I encourage you to go back and see what you missed.

In Christ,

Sandy