- The Christmas tree. Always freshly cut, adorned with multi-colored lights and a variety of ornaments, each with their own story and history.
- Christmas music. The special CDs that only come out for one month of the year get played over and over again and I never grow tired of them. Blaring loudly while baking cookies, or quietly providing background to animated conversation during the family dinner.
- Christmas gifts. Sometimes I spend weeks or months thinking about the special people in my life and what they might desire. I love exchanging gifts to see that person's reaction when they open it - did I make a good choice? Were they as excited to receive it as I was to give it?
- Christmas Eve. We have always made it a tradition to gather together on Christmas Eve and have a dinner together before the evening church service. It is always a fun time and this year we were able to host it at our new house! After the service, we traditionally opened one gift between the family before going to bed. This year we did an exchange of all our gifts - taking our time from oldest to youngest, unwrapping each gift until Christmas morning truly made itself known at midnight when we finished!
- Christmas day. Traditionally we unwrapped all of our presents from Santa as early as possible this morning. As we've grown up and starting sharing the holiday with other families, Zach and I spend the morning unwrapping our gifts from each other. We have a slower pace to the day and we drive to one side of the family's home to celebrate the rest of the day with them.
- December 26th. For years we always drove back to MI to spend the time between Christmas and New Year's with our extended families. We would pack all of our bags, load up the gifts, and smoosh four kids into the van to drive the 9 hours to Trenton. It was always cold and usually snowy, but it was always warm in the packed basements where we had large family celebrations. On my Mom's side, all the cousins would perform Christmas stories from the Bible, share songs on their instruments, and often we would carol in the neighborhood. On my Dad's side, we did a gift exchange in Grandma's living room and later that day, tons of relatives would come over to gather for food, beer, wine, and cookies. This tradition is now one of the past (though the memories remain), but I'm sure it will be replaced with new ones.
- New Year's. Since becoming a part of my husband's family, we have enjoyed a Pork and Sauerkraut dinner every year with his grandparents - a wonderfully delicious meal, oftentimes finished off with an early birthday cake for Zach.
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