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Wednesday, December 16, 2009

a tag to share Christmas memories



i was recently tagged by my green eyed gal friend, christina, @ luvin this life. she shared some of her favorite traditions and memories of Christmas in this post and tagged a few of us to share some of our memories from Christmas also.

i loved Christmas as a little girl. it was so exciting and fun. but, my family was not into many traditions. we usually celebrated the holiday with my dad's side of the family on Christmas Eve and my mom's side of the family on Christmas day. and, we opened presents together somewhere in between those times. but, i loved it all. i always loved the idea of having traditions that we could do each year but it never really worked out to remember what we tried to do the year before. so, we just enjoyed Christmas in the moment.

but, then i married the most traditional man on the face of the earth. he grew up with lots of traditions that he wanted to carry on into our family life and i loved it. there was no real purpose to Christmas Eve in aaron's family, except that everyone except his parents used it to finish off their Christmas shopping. can you imagine that? still shopping on Christmas Eve? after aaron finished his Christmas shopping he would head home to watch "scrooge, a Christmas carol" with his mom, wrap his gifts, drink egg nog and eat Christmas cookies. his mom and dad would have already exchanged gifts some time that evening. all of the celebrations of Christmas always began Christmas morning in their family. it all started with a wonderful brunch, gifts, then dinner. aaron is from a large family and their house was always full on that day.

so, when aaron and i got married we incorporated many of these traditions into our Christmas celebration and started a few of our own. one of the best memories for me was our first Christmas Eve together. aaron wanted us to sit at home, exchange our gifts for each other, watch "scrooge," drink coffee, because i hate eggnog, and eat Christmas cookies. we still do this today. he wanted to wait until Christmas Eve to do all of our shopping, but i could not do that. i had to have that done by then. so, that tradition changed some. i loved this tradition we started. it was our time to celebrate together, just him and me. i still look forward to this romantic Chrismas Eve tradition with my husband every year. we have a very large family of our own and adding his and mine together makes for a lot of family gatherings each year. but, this time with him each year is so precious to me. it is a tradition that we can do, together, year after year as long as we both shall live.

what traditions were you apart of?  what traditions do you incorporate into your Christmas now?

i am supposed to tag 5 other bloggers to pass the sharing of Christmas memories around. but, if you stopped by today to visit and would like to share a Christmas memories post. i would love to stop by and read it. so, please come back by and let me know and i will hop over to share in your memories. or, if you just want to share your favorite memory here in the comments, that would be fun too.

the rules:
write a Christmas memories blog.
include the link to my post somewhere in your blog.
tag five other bloggers.
then return to this blog's comments and paste the link to your Christmas memories blog.

i would like to tag:
tara
kristin
rosel
mimi
adeye

please share a favorite Christmas memory or tradition in an upcoming post.




25 comments:

He & Me + 3 said...

Family traditions are the best. We have a few. I will try and get to this tag. Thanks!

Warren Baldwin said...

Family traditions are wonderful. I hope yours this year are the best.

Veronica said...

Love, love the idea of family traditions. I was the same way growing up with having to make the rounds at different family member's homes but never really having anything we did special just with our immediate family.

Now that we have children, having traditions is so important to me. I'm still trying to figure things out, but I want our children to have awesome memories of what we used to do every Christmas.

That's awesome about you and your husband having your own special time at Christmas. That is so neat!

Andrea said...

Family traditions are awesome! We collect ornaments for each child each year. We let one of the kids read the Christmas story..etc.
Blessings, andrea

RCUBEs said...

No wonder I almost tripped when I was running errands, you "tagged"me :)

That is a sweet thing to do, of having a special time between you and your hubby. Looking at all the pictures you always share, love is very evident between you, your hubby and with your children.

I miss my mom's cooking. Catholic way, they have a midnight mass[eve]. I remember my cousins, brothers and I and mom [my dad was a sailor]would go to the church, then would gather together and eat together all those wondrous foods that my mom had prepared. It was very memorable for me.

Then when morning came, the kids [as I was back then :)], would visit all of the relatives' house to kiss the elderly's hands as sign of respect, to wish them a Merry Christmas. Then, in return, the old folks would give them money as their gifts.

I'm old now ["80" in fact]...but I don't have that tradition here :) But I'm glad I don't because I'd rather stick to the simplicity that is in the Lord Jesus.

Thank you for your great story and for tagging me. Thank you for your friendship and being a wonderful sister in Christ. Have a blessed Merry Christmas and may the cookies and the coffee [or eggnog for your hubby] be the best this year! Love to you sister! God bless.

Tara said...

Thanks for tagging me! I will definitely do this and will let you know when. It will either be Friday or next week like Tuesday.

I couldn't wait until Christmas Eve to shop either...esp. with children! Glad y'all have made your own traditions! So sweet!

Kristin said...

That cracks me up that he wanted you to do all your shopping on Christmas Eve. LOL! I don't think I could do that either! :) I have been meaning to write a post like this anyways, so I will work on one later today. It will be fun!

Bridget said...

Such wonderful Christmas traditions! I love spending time with family at Christmas!

elaine @ peace for the journey said...

How do you manage that quiet time on Christmas Eve with all your kids? I'd love to do the same...

My college kids are home and are already forgetting that home life is quite different from dorm life. Oh, the craziness of it all. I want to run away sometimes...

peace~elaine

Mich said...

all your shopping on Christmas Eve?!!! Is he crazy?

I loved how you have a sweet night together though. :)

Unknown said...

What a lovely tradition for just the two of you! Gets me to thinking of something for just me and my hubby as well. He and I get so caught up in making Christmas meaningful for our kiddo, I think we forget about eachother a little bit. Hmmm...

Thank you, dear lady!!!
and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! (just in case I get too busy to come by and tell you later!)

GodsOwn/Bernice said...

I joined in http://myjourney-godsown.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-memories-join-in.html

Merry Christmas to you
Bernice

septembermom said...

Carrying on traditions together at Christmas is a beautiful gift to each other and your kids. Lovely memories.

Karen said...

Enjoyed reading this, Christy...

Julie said...

Great post, Christy! Love seeing your traditions.

Have a blessed night!
Julie

Heart2Heart said...

Christy,

I love how you explain that as we enter into marriage we incorporate our traditions into ones we love and even enjoy creating new ones. Can't wait to read about those that you have tagged!

Love and Hugs ~ Kat

Kristin said...

I wrote my post :)

Anonymous said...

my favorite was opening one gift on Christmas Eve....
tammy

Cheesemakin' Mamma said...

Oh, I love this post! Thanks for sharing your Christmas memories and traditions. I have a lot of good memories, mixed with hard ones since my parents divorced when I was ten and we had to split our Christmas breaks between parents. Stacie and I missed each other so much during this time that eventually we refused to be gone from each other on Christmas. We've started a lot of new traditions since having kids. We now stay at home and let others come visit us. It is wonderful!

LisaShaw said...

Precious Sister, I pray a beautiful CHRISTmas for you and your family. I pray for special memories to be created for all of you.

CHRISTmas has always been very special to me and I'm enjoying the LORD and my family.

Christy I look forward to sharing more with you on your blog in 2010. I've been very encouraged by you this year. Thank you for all you've shared and the love you brought to us all.

Merry CHRISTmas!

Deborah Ann said...

I'm a Christmas Eve shopper too. How beautiful that you carry on the traditions for your husband. I'm sure that means the world to him!

Jenilee said...

Oh! I enjoyed reading your traditions! :) isn't Christmas fun? :)

Adeye said...

I finally did it :)

http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2009/12/tag-to-share-christmas-memories.html

have a blessed weekend, my friend.

Christy said...

Christy I joined in!! Here's the link to my blog post!

http://my3gifts.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-traditions.html#links

Tara said...

Here is mine:
http://thekellykorner.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-traditions.html