Christmas Eve
Well, the Christmas tree is up and the advent wreath has been decorated and hung on the front door. The banisters are covered in cedar branches and gold ribbon and the stockings are hung. Christmas Eve is certainly here. In fact, it's almost over.
As per tradition, our house remained undecorated until today. And now everything is up. It makes for one busy day. As a child we used to go out and spend the most of December 24th with our grandparents. While we were away, the Christ Child would come with the angels and bring our Christmas Tree, the presents, the decorations throughout the house, the outdoor Christmas lights, etc... everything to do with Christmas was brought by the Christ Child and the angels on Christmas Eve. Looking back on that, I really love the tradition. What better way to keep Christ in Christmas? Now that we're older and wiser we pitch in on the decorating and such but I have no idea how it all got done in the space of a couple of hours when we were younger. One thing I appreciate about the tradition is that it doesn't really involve lying to the children because when they are old enough you can explain to them that indeed, all good things and all the gifts we receive in this life truly do come from Christ.
And further keeping with family traditions, we spent this evening over at my aunt and uncle's enjoying the company of family. As I mentioned in an earlier post this past week my Oma has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimers. My aunt gave her a quilt for Christmas that had the pictures and names of each of her children and her grandchildren on it with colour coded segments for each family. It was an amazing gift and so appropriate. Although she might not remember us all now, at least we can point to pictures on the quilt so that she knows who we're talking about and remind her of who they are in the family. I think it was a great idea.
Anyways, my family has gone to bed but I'm staying up trying to waste some time so that I can go to midnight mass in about an hour. My family will be going to mass in the morning and I'll join them for that, but I'd really like to go to midnight mass so I think I'll be heading over there on my own tonight. Hopefully the coffee I drank earlier tonight will keep me awake through mass.
I wish you and all your families a very blessed and happy Christmas!
As per tradition, our house remained undecorated until today. And now everything is up. It makes for one busy day. As a child we used to go out and spend the most of December 24th with our grandparents. While we were away, the Christ Child would come with the angels and bring our Christmas Tree, the presents, the decorations throughout the house, the outdoor Christmas lights, etc... everything to do with Christmas was brought by the Christ Child and the angels on Christmas Eve. Looking back on that, I really love the tradition. What better way to keep Christ in Christmas? Now that we're older and wiser we pitch in on the decorating and such but I have no idea how it all got done in the space of a couple of hours when we were younger. One thing I appreciate about the tradition is that it doesn't really involve lying to the children because when they are old enough you can explain to them that indeed, all good things and all the gifts we receive in this life truly do come from Christ.
And further keeping with family traditions, we spent this evening over at my aunt and uncle's enjoying the company of family. As I mentioned in an earlier post this past week my Oma has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimers. My aunt gave her a quilt for Christmas that had the pictures and names of each of her children and her grandchildren on it with colour coded segments for each family. It was an amazing gift and so appropriate. Although she might not remember us all now, at least we can point to pictures on the quilt so that she knows who we're talking about and remind her of who they are in the family. I think it was a great idea.
Anyways, my family has gone to bed but I'm staying up trying to waste some time so that I can go to midnight mass in about an hour. My family will be going to mass in the morning and I'll join them for that, but I'd really like to go to midnight mass so I think I'll be heading over there on my own tonight. Hopefully the coffee I drank earlier tonight will keep me awake through mass.
I wish you and all your families a very blessed and happy Christmas!
posted by DP | 10:51 PM
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