I’ll Be Home For Christmas

There is nothing better than the sights and smells of home at Christmas time. All of my childhood memories come flooding back each year. Remembering Santa Claus arriving on Christmas morning brings back such nostalgia. I am, perhaps, a kid at heart. I love all the memories of the colored lights at my grandparents and the clear lights at our home. Now, I can’t help but find a place for both.

I can recall all the times we got to travel South for Christmas and arrive at the grandparents. However, more Christmas’s were spent at home than anywhere else.

With a family of my own now, we enjoy keeping the traditions close to home. Christmas Eve comes with such anticipation and excitement for Christmas morning. As most families do with small children, we set out cookies and milk (and carrots) for Santa and his reindeer and Eva writes or scribbles what she wants to tell Santa on a piece of paper. A Christmas movie fills the evening and then it is off to bed for Eva Jewel. Twas’ the night before Christmas sets sugarplums dancing in her head.

Chuck looks forward to an evening of putting together complicated toys that Santa is bringing and I spend my time preparing the stockings and setting everything out around the tree.

Christmas morning begins at the crack of dawn. Eva is beside herself when she sees traces of Santa Claus! Paper flies as we all open presents and see what lasting treasures await in the packages (wink).

Once the presents have all been opened, we prepare a special breakfast and enjoy a fun time of celebrating a very special birth. The Nativity Scene sets the center of the table. Birthday hats and blow horns grace each place. We light candles on whatever breakfast has been served and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. The Christmas story is read and it all comes to life one more time.

Teaching Eva, the greatest gift that was ever given didn’t come wrapped under the tree, but HE came wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. This is the most valuable lesson we could ever teach her. Santa Claus is fun and we only have a few precious years to watch the magic, but watching her bow her head and fold her little hands, to honor the real Reason for the Season, will be a treasured Christmas tradition for me.

There is nothing more powerful than to watch Christmas through the innocence of a child. Hearing special and unique family traditions, always brings a smile to my face because I know, one day, they will look back and cherish each one.

As the years go by, our traditions, perhaps, will change to some degree, but I know as long as my family is together, I will always be Home for Christmas.

Merry Christmas

“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed on Him would not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

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