Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve! For my family it's a day filled with growing excitement and honoring traditions. Over the years the traditions have had to change with the growing children, but hints of them still remain. Other traditions are still as strong as ever- no matter how old the kids get! This morning we are all getting ready to go to work. It hardly sounds like a festive event- but we are all going to the family business and helping my parents. It's about working together as a family to help them to be successful and hopefully relieve some of their pressure! Tonight the kids and I will curl up with some Christmas soup (That's what I call anything I toss into a pot and add water to!) and watch the family Christmas movie: Gremlins. Then the kids each get to open one gift of their choosing.

Christmas morning always goes the same way- no matter how much I try not to... I get so excited that I run in and jump on their beds, wake them up. I'm always the first awake. And I even lay there for a while, trying to sleep... but I can't. So I go out and make breakfast while they grumble about and put on their festive moods. My parents join us for the stockings and gift opening. Stockings have always been special in our family. I like to put extra time and thought into what will make the individual smile and the kids have started filling my stocking. We all work together on my parent's. And then we take time with the gifts, the kids take turns and it keeps things from turning into an ungrateful paper shredding nightmare.

This year we'll be going over to my older sister's house for Christmas feasting and general family togetherness. My brother-in-law is planning to take out the snow mobile and we'll all go sledding and they have some new goats I'm looking forward to meeting.

This year is a particularly special gift. The kids were supposed to go to their father's home for Christmas. And my oldest and I were working on finding ways to make it special for us, while we were alone. We weren't even planning to get a tree. Their father chose last month not to take them this Christmas! So I was scrambling to get stockings figured out etc. But the kids were really happy about it and I cherish every moment I get with them. I am so thankful!

I keep hearing about sad situations where people are alone or disillusioned by the shameless consumerism of Christmas. And I wish I could bring them home with me. I know our family isn't perfect- far from it! But there is a lot of love; plenty to go around.