DAILY PRAYER: Thank you, God for sending Your Son on one glorious night to be born of a virgin, to live a perfect life, and to die on the cross for our sins. Thank you that He rose from the dead three days later and that, on this and every Christmas, we can celebrate the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Amen.
GRAMMY NOTES: Bootz served at the altar for the first time on Christmas Eve!
GRAMMY NOTES 2: Actually, it isn’t. My guess is they go with their husband’s and grandparent’s traditions. I have been homebound by disability since they were very small. If I had insisted, my husband and kids would’ve stayed home with me.
But his family always did/does the big gathering with a real tree, turkey and trimmings, aunts, uncles, and cousins, going to Mass as a family and taking up yards and yards of pews. They live 4 hours away, so holiday trips are always at least one and usually more than one overnight.
I wanted my girls to soak in that culture and sense of belonging while they were young, so I spent 13 Christmases alone. It sucked. I cried, watched a lot of movies, and waited for them to come home so we could open my presents together.
His family also did/does the huge Thanksgiving thing and they always went to that as well until, one year, I just had had enough and said I wanted Thanksgiving to be MY holiday. My best holiday memories are from the days when the five of us turned off the phone on Wednesday and focused on doing delicious, fun, relaxing, and sometimes silly things together until school resumed on Monday.
The girls still talk about the year we put together a ginormous jigsaw puzzle and got grease on some of the pieces from all the nachos we ate while doing it. Another year, we got out all the board games they had outgrown and didn’t want to save for their own kids. We played them each one more time before giving them away and I had prizes for everyone at the end.
We also didn’t do turkey. Instead, we had food adventures. One year, the girls had gotten an American Girl colonial era cook book, so we each picked a dish to make. We had an elaborate kitchen schedule for who began when and got which pans, burners, and oven time. The food was wonderful. Another year, I got each of us a Cornish game hen so we could have “individual turkeys.” But I think the most memorable seems to be the year we had shark. Mama Buzz still talks about that. LOL
::sniff:: I need a tissue. :-)“
SHORTS:
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