Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas Eve and all is Well

This morning  I've ironed one of my old Christmas aprons, put it on and made. . .

a cheese ball (my tradition)
a large fruit salad (my Mom's tradition)
deviled eggs
pecan pie muffins (my tradition - Mom always made the best pecan pies ever)

I've draped an old (and wrinkled) Christmas tablecloth over the kitchen table.


Now it is time to eat some breakfast, my stomach is starting to growl, and clean up the mess in the kitchen, before making the big meal for later.

When I was growing up, we opened our presents on Christmas Eve.

When I married and started having a family of my own, we opened the presents on Christmas Day.
I went so far as not putting any of the kids' presents under the tree until Christmas morning. Sometimes I think they got a little worried. Along with the cookies and milk, I left the wrapping paper and scissors under the tree for Santa to use.
After they went to bed, I stayed up and wrapped their presents and placed them under the tree. That was a little hard on Mom, though, I think I only did that a few times.

Now that one of my sons is married and he comes to visit on Christmas Eve we have started to open presents on Christmas Eve evening again.

My mom always made the best fruit salad on Christmas! We never had a lot, but they always bought bags of in the shell mixed  nuts, chocolate balls and hard candy that was placed in my mom's milk glass candy dish and oranges during the holidays.

When  my kids were little, after visiting my other sister and her family, Mom and Dad usually came out on Christmas Eve and spent the night, so they would be here on Christmas Day to watch the little ones open their gifts. I can still see them coming through the front door carrying bags of presents. Mom always helped with Christmas dinner. We'd still be in bed and I'd hear her and Dad in the kitchen getting the turkey ready to go in the oven.

I miss my Mom a lot during the holidays. She loved Christmas! Mom passed away in 1996. My dad is still with us, but he is in a Nursing Home. I visited him Thursday and he opened his gift from us. They had a Christmas Party and Santa passed out gifts to all the residents. He joked and said Santa probably wasn't going to bring him anything. But, Santa did!


My best wishes to all of my blogging friends and
I hope you enjoy Christmas with your family this year.

9 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for sharing your family with us. I lost my mom in 1980 and christmas is still hard.

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  2. I enjoyed "visiting" with your family through your story. I remember one year we came to my husband's folks and spent the night. His little sister got us all up at 3:00 a.m. I thought I'd die from stravation before breakfast time!

    Merry Christmas, Janet, and I look forward to next year's friendship.

    By the way, the picture of you dad reminded me so much of my dad when he was in the nursing home; thin, work-worn hands.

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  3. Awww, thank you Janet for sharing this with us. It brings back memories of my childhood and Christmas past too.. I lost my mom in 1997 and dad in 1998.. It's really hard this time of year.. Merry Christmas to you and your family..Susie

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  4. Hi Janet,
    I enjoyed reading about your Christmas traditions. I just finished making cinnamon rolls and walking with my daughter, handing them out to the neighbors.

    I'm waiting for my oldest to arrive home, hoping the traffic is light on her four hour drive.

    We'll go to the 11 pm candle light service tonight, and the girls will open their one Christmas Eve gift, always new pajamas (even now that they're in college!).

    The only parent we have left is my dad, but he's several states away. We'll talk on the phone tomorrow.

    Have a wonderful celebration with your loved ones.

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  5. Things aren't like they used to be, but we had a pleasant supper out tonight with my stepson and our three granddaughters that we rarely see. My dad's long gone, but I took pizza and had lunch with my mom today in the highrise apartment where she lives. We can't go back in time, so I try to just enjoy the moment anymore. I hope that you and yours have a wonderful Christmas!

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  6. Merry Christmas to all of you in the Blackberry Patch!!

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  7. Hope your Christmas was lovely. Ours was great.

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  8. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. Thanks for sharing your Christmas traditions. With a new family, we are trying to find our tradition in the middle of everyone else's. I'm always interested in reading how others celebrate. And, happy Santa left a present for your dad, too.

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  9. What a sweet Christmas memory blog. I love the picture of your Dad with his gift from Santa! Sounds like you had a really sweet day. So did we. All my best for you in the coming year...

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