Christmas is a wonderful holiday. It blends nostalgia and longing with excitement and anticipation. As I grow older, I find the balance in my life is tipping more to the nostalgia and longing side of things. Powerful memories of Christmases past mingle with happy events in the present that will soon become memories themselves. Everything we do in the present to celebrate the day is tied with stronger and stronger bonds to things in the past. The memories are happy, but somehow always tinged with a tender sadness.
Christmas 2014 is over now. It wasn’t quite what I expected. It wasn’t a white Christmas. On Christmas Eve it was 50° and it rained all day. The last remnants of any snow were washed away. It snowed a little on Christmas morning, but it was too warm to stick. I know it’s silly to feel disappointed about that. I can’t control the weather. Even so, it made the day seem a little less Christmassy.
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| No snow this Christmas. |
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| Violas blooming on Christmas day. |
Daniel didn’t make it home for Christmas. His quick road trip out west and back with Seth took longer than expected. Part of that was due to the weather – they hit snow coming back through Kansas. Part of it was due to car trouble – they spent a day waiting for a fuel pump in Dodge City. They ended up arriving at the Shillig house in Missouri in time for Christmas Day. Daniel got to spend Christmas Day there with his Uncle John and family and Grandma and Grandpa Howe, which was nice for them, but we were sad he wasn’t here with us.
This was the smallest Christmas we’ve had yet – just me, Stacey, Hannah, and Josiah. I guess I should try and get used to small Christmases. As my children get older and start their own families the times we’ll be together will be rarer.
On Christmas Eve we had our traditional cookies and eggnog. We roasted chestnuts – on an open fire, even. We sang some carols and read from the Gospel of Luke. Later on we watched Christmas In Connecticut.
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| Stacey roasting chestnuts. |
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| Christmas Eve cookies and eggnog. |
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| Christmas Eve. |
We had a happy Christmas morning. No one woke up early. We took our time opening presents. There were some great presents. We Skyped with Rachel and her family and watched Hazel open presents. Later Geoffrey and his family Skyped from Las Vegas where they are spending the holiday with Joni’s family. We got to open our present from them as they watched. We also Skyped with Sarah and opened gifts. It’s wonderful that technology allows us to share Christmas over such long distances.
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| Hannah and Josiah waiting to come downstairs. |
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| Opening gifts. |
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| Opening gifts. |
In the afternoon we had our traditional Christmas dinner – ham, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, and fruit salad. We spent the evening playing games together and ate cookies and drank eggnog again.
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| Christmas dinner. |
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| Playing games. |
We usually take down our Christmas decorations the day after Christmas, but we didn’t this time. We wanted them up for when Daniel came home. We’ll take them down tomorrow. That didn’t stop us from starting our New Years house cleaning, though. Stacey and Hannah cleaned out the big closet in the work room upstairs and sent a load of things to the thrift store. On Friday we gutted the closet in our bedroom and consigned a ton of things to the trash or the thrift store. We have other projects to complete before Wednesday. I like to greet the New Year in clean house.
Daniel finally arrived home in the wee hours (4:00 A.M.) of Saturday morning. We we’re so glad to hear him come through the door. He drove from Missouri by himself and we were worried, but he did okay. Saturday afternoon we had another round of Christmas as we watched him open his gifts. We’re so glad he he’s home.
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| Opening gifts with Daniel. |
The year 2015 will bring some big and exciting changes for our family. There will be a least one wedding (Sarah and Taah-Shee on February 28th), and a new baby (Rachel is due to deliver a baby girl sometime around January 14th, although she thinks it will be sooner), and much more. Who knows what else will happen.
Happy New Year!
