Christmas Traditions

It's always sad to see old traditions pass, but with each passing tradition creates opportunity for a new one. When I was younger, my family would go to the midnight Christmas Eve service at our church. At the very end of the service, they would pass out candles to each person and then one person would go down the middle with a lit candle, lighting the candle of the person sitting closest to the aisle. Then that person would turn to the person sitting next to them and light their candle and so on and so forth until the whole congregation had their candles lit. Once the last candle was lit, all of the lights were turned off and everyone would sing "Silent Night". It was one of my all time favorite things during Christmas. Unfortunately, someone ruined that tradition by messing with the candle. I am assuming someone got burned, or maybe something caught fire, I'm not entirely sure why they stopped doing it, but they no longer do the candle lit singing of "Silent Night". (You can imagine my disappointment the year that stopped. The disappointment comes close to the time I found out Santa wasn't real)

This year, Alex, Keagan and I will be starting our own traditions as well as continuing old ones. We will go to Alex's parent's house where we will have his family Christmas. We will spend time with his grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and siblings and we will all gather in their living room to play "grab bag Bingo". It is one of my favorite things. And of course Alex and Ryan will say when December 25th is called "That's Christmas right?" (Christmas is its own square on the Bingo board) or when Christmas is called they will say "That's December 25th right?" It will be fun. On Christmas day, we will spend part of the morning at home and then head to my mom's house for brunch, and then we will eat a late lunch there too. We will spend time listening to Christmas music, eating a relish tray and maybe watching Harry Potter.

I think that the traditions I had as a child really helped shape who I am today, and I definitely want to start some of the same traditions for Keagan. There was nothing quite like waking up at 3 in the morning to check if Santa has come and then wait anxiously until everyone else woke up to open presents. I am really looking forward to this Christmas because it is his first, but also because I enjoy Christmas myself. As Christmas gets one day closer, I find that my excitement level grows.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope it's wonderful.