Traditions

 

Only 5 days till Christmas… the busy time is upon us.  I hope you are finding time for what is important.

Yesterday, I visited with my parents. we went out to lunch and then to a local market where we both got some of our produce shopping finished for the Christmas meals. I picked up some chestnuts to roast. I e-mailed my niece in Maryland and was so happy to hear that she is going to come over to my home for a visit when she is home for the holidays.  In the evening, I made cookie dough with Connor.  Tonight, the kids and I will bake and decorate the cookies (gingerbread, chocolate chip and Linzer).  Thursday evening, all of us are going to our local theatre to see a Christmas show. The important things: traditions.  The things that I remember from my childhood and the things that my children look forward to every year. The time spent with family, remembering the past and making memories to pass down.

As Connor, who will turn 14 this Christmas (see above), ate breakfast this morning, I told him how I remember roasting chestnuts at my Babci and Pop’s house. (Babci is polish for grandmother, and that is what I called her) They had a huge, old coal stove in the kitchen  and the house was filled with happiness.  I reminisced with him and remember taking them around to serve them. My great uncle, Harmon, who always sat in the same chair, especially liked them.  i even grabbed my iPad to look up antique coal stoves to show him pictures of what it looked like and to explain how it worked.

Homemaking is so much more than cleaning your home.  It is making your house a home. And while I have housecleaning to do today to get ready for the holidays, the most important things aren’t the perfect house or presentation, but the traditions that make your holiday special.

Before I really got into photography, my hobby of the moment was scrapboking and I made an advent calendar scrapbook.  It has a short verse from the Bible, a description of one of our traditions or special Christmas memories, a picture, my “wish” for them, the date and a pocket or envelope with something special that we would do (instead of the traditional gift in most advent calendars).  Quite honestly, we don’t use it as an advent calendar any more.  The kids are a little too old for that but I put it out every year and turn the page every day.  So I’m sharing a few pages from that today.

Hope you are enjoying the holidays!