As families go, we all have Christmas Eve traditions - what is your’s?? Do you go to a friend’s house or one of your relatives. Do you find time to go to church and sing your heart out?? What is your Christmas Eve tradition??
For me when I lived in California, every Christmas Eve we went to church with our kids - Kimber, Josh and maybe Danny sometimes, and then go to my ex’s boss house where we made Christmas tamales and then ate them. His boss was from Texas and Mexican and for them, making tamales for Chirstmas was a must. We would roll them, stuff them, put them in their corn shuck and then steam them until they were done. It was GREAT and alot of fun since all the neighbors and some of the employees would come.
Nothing beats homemade tamales. And then, after we were stuffed, we would go home and put together Santa’s toys and get up at the crack of dawn with the kids.
For many, many years, I was never home here in Florida for Christmas since I lived in Ohio and California for about 16 years. Missing my folks terribly always and longing to be home for Christmas. But I was lucky, I lived not too far from my only brother in California and we always had Christmas together at either his house or mine and our kids were close in age and they had a ball. That was the one good thing about being so close until I moved back to Florida, that his son and my daughter and son were best of friends and grew up like I did, with my cousins close by. That was a blessing for both Rick and me, to see our children so close for so long.
Even though Santa has long since left my house with no small children, today we will make Christmas cookies and bake pies and cornbread for the stuffing and cut up celery and onions to cook tomorrow. We will go to a candlelight service and take mom out Christmas riding since dad can no longer really drive and she loves the lights. We will have oyster stew and just be together and thankful that we can still be together since mom is 78 and dad 81. But what do you do on Christmas Eve??
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Eve with your family and friends and build memories for your children so when they grow up, they have traditions of their own because of you, their family. That they see that giving your time and love means everything at Christmas, much more than buying gifts. Time is the gift that we all can give easily for our families.
Every year I try to gather family and friends and go cruising around looking at lights. We have a couple of neighborhoods that light every house (even if the people aren’t home or the house is empty!). One even runs lights in the trees across the road between neighbors and Santa can be found sitting with Ms. Claus at the end of their driveway greeting people.
I hope this year the tradition will continue but I have noticed around here that there are a lot less houses lit up. I am hoping for the best… I have filled the gas tank and have the Egg Nog ready to go for tonight’s trip.
Happy Holidays to all and let’s all wish for a fun filled, non-controversial, action packed year of racing!!
For me Christmas is being aware that Jesus was born and all the wonderful things He has done for me. Sure, life can have it’s ups and downs, but with Jesus “all things are possible” and He can get us thru anything. I don’t know how anyone can get thru the tough times without Him in their hearts. This is how I feel and in no way do I want to force feed anyone… i think eventually everyone sees “the face of God”…
The other thing I love is having the family together…especially Hailey and Bobby. They are so spiritual and they are so loving. They made gifts for everyone. Of course, Mom (Jennifer)deserves the thanks for teaching them to be so thoughtful and creative. I love their enthusiasm and seeing them happy… they are the loves of my life and they fill in a huge void that WAS…
My oldest son Ken lives in Boulder so I will miss him…ALOT…
For those of you who will be alone…GO OUTSIDE… enjoy watching children play…look at houses that are decorated… go to a food kitchen…DON’T BE ALONE! you do have a choice… I have been alone and I always found a way to smile on Christmas…even if it was with a stranger… the worse seat in the house is the pity pot so if you can avoid it please do…churches are never too full and if you go to the churches that have alot of music it is fun!
Some of you have lost loved ones. I also know what thats about and it hurts so much. I miss my Eddie everyday but i spend those days thinking about some of the craziest things we did and i wind up laughing. I also know he is never going to suffer… he lives in a new place and he is happier than he ever could be on this earth. for some of you there will be pain this season… I will keep you in my prayers because you can’t help how you feel and tho you may not think it now, the future will once again shine. For now it is ok to mourn…i will think about you collectively…there are many of you and if the rest of us pray for you, hopefully the pain will be lessened…
For those of you who have loved ones in the military who are far from home…i think of them with enormous pride and gratitude. I pray for their safe return. Soldiers have a way of making Holidays special together…they will celebrate! .God bless them all and bring them home safely please…
I hope when the new year comes in that all of us in the racing family will work hard to bring back the “FUN”… no more politics, hurting others, or greed. I hope we all find a way to survive the tough times and to remember that this is entertainment and supposed to be F~U~N !!! when it stops being fun we need to re-evaluate how we are handling things and work together for some real old fashioned bumping and grinding on the track by lots of cars and trucks and some laughing and excitement in full stands!!!..
Christmas is a time when people look for ways to find happiness and good will. Life is about choices… try to make the right ones. whatever good you do for someone else will come back to you 10 times…
I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a F~A~N~T~A~S~T~I~C 2009 !!!
Our family tradition was also going to different meighborhoods looking at Christmas lights. Since I am the only one left who enjoys it, I usually stay close to home since Baldwin Park is at my back door. They have a lot of beautiful lights and so does our neighborhood. It is really pretty walking through the neighborhood to see the lights and meeting people. I think our new tradition is for me and one of our neighborhoods competiting with each other to see who has the most decorations.
Might not be as good as your stories.
But my tradition was always to get my mom a box cherries, did this for 37 yrs. (the christmas box ones)
But now that she has passed away. So when i see them in the store at christmas,
i get a box and try to eat them myself. Even thou i could never like them. LOL
Merry Christmas Mom
And to everyone else…
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