It’s the last Sunday of the year. Christmas is over. The new year looms a few days ahead of us. We had a great week here. Miriam arrived home last Sunday night – actually early Monday morning. It’s wonderful to have her home. Our Christmas was so much merrier with her here.
I was worried that our Christmas would not be white, but Mother Nature was kind and brought us snow on Christmas Eve day (and almost every other day of the week after that).
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| Sunrise on Christmas morning. |
We kept our traditional Christmas, but in a scaled down version. On Christmas Eve day Miriam and I baked some of the traditional cookies we have every year – lebkuchen, orange cookies, and Greek anise cookies. I made eggnog and set it on the freezing back porch to chill. Later that evening after Hannah got home from work we held our celebration. We had our eggnog and cookies. We read the account of Jesus’ birth from Luke 2. We sang carols together.
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| Christmas Eve. |
I love Christmas Eve. The most magical moment of Christmas for me has always been the brief time on Christmas Eve when everyone has finally gone to bed and the house is quiet. I love to sit with just the tree lights on and the single flame of the bayberry candle burning in the dark. That’s when the ghosts of Christmases past rise up and I remember people and places and other times – the fifty-five Christmases of my life and beyond that to ancient memories that seem to fill the night. There is a feeling of anticipation hanging in the air, anticipation scented with pine and bayberry and glowing with the light of candles and tree lights and stars.
Christmas morning was a bit different. In years past the children were always up and anxious to come downstairs to open gifts, but that has changed now. They are old enough to value sleeping in, knowing the gifts aren’t going anywhere. Stacey still had to go to work for a few hours, even on Christmas. The lady she cares for needs help whether it’s Christmas or not. Because we had to wait for Stacey, I didn’t waken the children, but let them sleep as long as they wanted. Later in the morning we Skyped with Sarah, then Rachel and her family, and then Geoffrey and his family. Around noon Daniel Skyped with us. It was so good to talk to him and see his face. While we were talking to him, Stacey arrived home and joined the conversation. What a blessing technology is that lets us be closer even when we are far apart.
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| Skyping with Elder Howe. |
After we finished talking to Daniel, we finally sat down to open gifts. Miriam acted as Santa and handed them out. We always open our gifts one at a time so we can ooh and aah over each one. There were great gifts for everyone – books, games, movies, clothes, jewelry, nothing extravagant, but all of it deeply appreciated. After gifts, we sat down to our traditional dinner of ham, cheesy potatoes, Miriam’s delicious egg bread, and fruit salad. The rest of the day we played games, watched a movie or two, and mostly enjoyed each other’s company.
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| Our traditional "Waiting on the stairs" photo. |
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| Opening gifts. |
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| Opening gifts. |
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| Opening gifts. |
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| Opening gifts. |
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| Opening gifts. |
The day after Christmas is our traditional day for taking down the tree and all the decorations. The tree was dried out enough that I was getting nervous about it. And I like to have a clean house for the new year with everything in its proper place. But I just couldn’t do it this year. On Thursday morning I stood in the living room and looked at the tree and the garlands and I couldn’t bring myself to remove them yet. We waited until Friday.
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| Playing games. |
On Friday we took down all the decorations. Somehow putting decorations away takes longer and is far more tedious than putting them up. It took us a couple of hours to box up all the ornaments, take down the lights and garlands, and drag the tree out to the fire pit. The sight of the tree sitting out there, stripped of its finery and waiting to be burned is so sad.
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| Before the decorations came down. |
On Friday night we kept another or our holiday traditions and went to the movies. We always go to see a movie around Christmas. We went to see “Frozen.” It was a good movie with lots of great songs.
Now it’s the last Sabbath of the year. Our meetings today were dominated by our family. I conducted Sacrament meeting and played the (programmable) organ. Stacey was the chorister. I gave one of the talks. I taught the Gospel Doctrine class. Stacey ran the Primary for the first hour and Miriam and Hannah ran it the second hour. Stacey taught the fifth Sunday lesson in Priesthood/Relief Society. When we finally got home, we breathed a sigh of relief. When we left church it was raining. When we crossed into Pennsylvania, the rain turned to wet snow. By the time we got to Gold the snow was falling thick and fast. I’ve decided it’s a perfect day for a long winter’s nap.
Our plans for New Years are pretty simple. There will be just the five of us again. We’ll play some games, eat the traditional foods on New Years Eve (Japanese) and New Years Day (pork and sauerkraut). We won’t stay up late and will sleep in as much as we can. School starts again on Thursday and then we’ll be back in the power of The Schedule again.
Have a happy New Year!
