Nostalgic Thoughts

Your sister has such a nice family.

@jstory07 Thank you so much, Judy.

@AmbiePam That is a super sweet looking family.

Yes, they are all unique, but traditions carry through the years.

I remember doing that too after coming home from the family Christmas party, followed by Midnight Mass.

@Juliaacv Yeah. I think it kind of was.

Oh that is so cute. It was sweet of you to play along for a few years so as not to spoil it for your parents, or your sister. Merry Christmas.

Moms grandparents were from Europe which is how she ended up with that tradition.

@rebelann I love that tradition, and actually miss it myself. My husband's 7 siblings have started a new tradition about 15 years ago, and 1 of them will send out a group chat text wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and then everyone replies. They love doing that and it is sweet that they still stay so connected to each other.

My daughter-in-law's mother does that also. My husband's family used to gather on Christmas Eve, but now we have to rent a hall and we had to move it earlier in the month. I always remember getting dressed up and going to Christmas or hosting it.

That sounds like so much fun! You and Vince had a really great idea, and I am sure that those little details were loved by your boys. Every year our daughter-in-law's mother has her 2 daughters and their families in for a traditional Polish Christmas Eve, and they open gifts and then spend the night. But this year our son wanted the Christmas morning experience alone with his wife and the twins. He wants to start traditions that the twins will remember and hopefully carry on. I look forward to hearing all of the exciting moments that they shared this morning, although yesterday afternoon Harper wanted to come home with Grandpa to see me and our tree. I do not think that she wanted to go to her other grandmother's house, or she was wondering how Santa would find her to bring her the presents. I often wonder what goes through her little mind.

@JudyEv I love that. I can see you doing that.

Thank you. Merry Christmas.

I remember doing that too. I also remember my parents ushering me back to bed again. I remember one year not getting anything. There was a bolt of flannel material in a brown bag that my parents told me that Santa left so that my Mom could make me a new nightie. I do not like to think back to that Christmas.

@LadyDuck I remember when Jonathon was an older teenager, he would just love to sit around the table after the meal and converse and visit with the rest of us adults. These days his family is too young for that luxury.

@Juliaacv - You are so right, I loved those gatherings at my parents' apartment. I helped Mom, the men took care of the drinks and the small appetizers and we sit around the table talking and laughing until the evening. I miss those traditions.

That is such a pretty picture, you look so happy.

I remember thinking that when I got a bit older and my parents would refer to our fireplace as fake and electric. But I liked the idea that somehow Santa did get in, and since we never locked our doors, I assumed he came in the way that the rest of us did.

@Juliaacv That would make sense. My response when I encounter cynical 7-years-olds is, "Well, I do believe that parents help Santa."

Before I got out of bed this morning, I thought back to when we were really young and Christmas morning. We had a coal furnace then, and I never liked to get up because the second floor, where our bedrooms were, was hardwood, but when you got to the bottom of the stairs, you stepped onto the tiled kitchen floor, and that was always cold because typically the furnace would have gone out during the night. Coal was getting harder to buy in those days. I would be happy when I walked across that floor to the rest of the main floor as there were hardwood floors. We had a fake (electric) fireplace, and my parents would hang our stockings from it. They would put an orange an apple, some nuts and a bit of hard candy for us. What a combination, fruit, nuts and sugar. In those early years, until my older brother started to school, we only had the stockings, there were no gifts under the tree. The emphasis in those days in our home was the celebration of the birth of the Lord.

Oh yes, I remember seeing the darkness of the night when I looked towards the window from my bed when I was used to seeing the curtains and white blinds.

That was sweet of him to do.

That would have been such a very nice gift, you must have loved it to recall it still.

I remember we left a piece of apple pie out for Santa, the baking was either pies or Christmas cake in those days, and the next morning when we woke up my mother complained that Santa liked the pie so much that he went into the fridge and ate another slice. And my 3 brothers and I all bought it.