Christmas Eve

Today is Christmas Eve and it is snowing!!!! How cool is that?

So, tonight is our family gathering. We have always celebrated as a family on Christmas Eve. My entire family gets together for dinner and we open presents. This is the tradition that my mom and dad began and we have continued. After mom and dad passed, it was Jana's family and my family that gathered, and we still do that today!!! This year we will be at my niece's house with her family, my nephew and his family, my sister and my family--all together.

We always have a nontraditional/traditional dinner. Tonight is Mexican Christmas--Yum-O!!! We will all eat more than we should, we will laugh and tell each other funny stories. There will be some holiday cheer and toasts to be sure! Then, we will gather in the living room and let the kids all open their presents. After all that is what Christmas is--a time for kids! We have to get this all done early so the little ones can get to bed so Santa can come!

Tomorrow is our Orphan Christmas at Leslie and Tom's. All our Aardvark friends and family will gather to eat (again) and celebrate with even more cheer! Should be lots of fun!!

Merry Christmas to all!

This time of year!

I love the time between Thanksgiving and New Years! All the time with family and friends, the yummy food, decorations, shopping, movies, memories...so many great things!

As a child I remember the big family Thanksgiving meals when all the aunts, uncles and cousins would get together and have a glorious meal then watch football. Christmas would bring simple tree and house decorations and pretty wrapping under the tree. Hurrying to bed on Christmas Eve to make myself go to sleep so Santa could come and brings his gifts. Then, New Years Eve would find all the extended family together again to ring in the new year! We were a very close family and we celebrated holidays together.

As we all grew older, there seemed to be fewer and fewer occasions that we gathered. As our parents aged there were fewer of them each year. As young adults we married and started our own families. Maybe we became too selfish or too busy to continue the old traditions. At any rate, here we are, many years later, isolated. Or, at least that is how I feel these days.

My mom died at the young age of 46 and my dad passed when he was 52. I am blessed to have lived past those years. I am now the adult. Planning family gatherings should fall to me, and I truly wish I could provide them. I wish I had a home that could hold all the family...not just my kids, but my nieces and nephews, and their families, along with my cousins and families. I wish there were time for us to all gather and visit and celebrate together. We have all gotten so busy and our schedules are so disjointed, that these traditions have fallen by the wayside and will probably never be revived.

Right now I would just be happy to have my immediate family together again, happy and congenial. Right now I just want my family to be a family. I miss having my kids be little! I love that they are growing up and they are moving forward, but I am sad that they are not always around.

As Christmas approaches I pray for the peace. Peace for the world, and peace for the family--my family and all the families in general.

Hopefully this season will bring to all...