What About Our Christmas Traditions?

-

 

 December-Brown

Most people here on The Hill know that we live in the Foothills of the Canadian Rockies. They understand that we have four distinctive seasons, represented by blooming trees and beds of bright flowers, bright cloudless skies and much warmer days, colorful tree leaves and food-producing gardens, and piles of snow and ice-covered rivers and lakes. So… why have I started this blog with that photo? We’re almost through the first week of December, supposedly getting ready for Christmas, and there isn’t a hint of snow in the photo. You are right… I took that photo from my favorite window. No wonder I’m having a problem getting into the Christmas Spirit. I’ve read many items on the Internet about the banning of Christmas traditional activity, which had caused me to recall our family traditions.

During the growing-up years of our children, we developed an unusual list of traditions. My husband’s business activities were always at optimum during the warm weather, making it almost impossible to have a vacation when the children were enjoying summer holidays. It was much more convenient to take a vacation in the Christmas/New Year’s break, and because we wanted to have “family” vacations, and our kids were happy with ‘family’ activities, we would have a yearly 3-week vacation, starting the week before Christmas. We did enjoy a family dinner and gift exchange with grandparents in mid December, a few days before our scheduled departure on our road trip to some southern point of the U.S. Our children knew there wouldn’t be any gifts under a decorated Christmas tree. The trip was our family gift, including visits to Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Magic Mountain, San Diego Wild Animal Park and Zoo, and other unexpected attractions that we would discover. The most they could expect was a Christmas stocking, and perhaps turkey sandwiches, if we didn’t have any cooking opportunities. Now that our children have their own families, we have enjoyed several similar vacations, and alternating our Christmas celebrations… one year with our U.S. family, and the next year with our Canadian family.

Our traditions have been shut down this year, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t be celebrating Christmas. We can still communicate with our family members, no matter where they are, thanks to telephones and the Internet. We can celebrate the birth of Jesus, the greatest gift from our Creator God. We can celebrate and be thankful for every breath that we have, for caring friends and neighbors, for our home and for food that many in our world can’t even imagine.

We can still keep Christ in Christmas!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Tale of Toasted Buns

-
Image
My mother's family were of German decent, with several major moves in their history. There are few details of her grandparent's move from Germany to southern Russia, during the reign of Catherine The Great, but we were told of the importance of the toasted buns which were, and still are, a special treat. In preparation for their long journey, they believed that to stay healthy, it was importance to bring a supply of drinking water with them as well as an abundance of homemade buns, toasted so that they wouldn't spoil. Mother frequently made toasted buns but I was never much for helping in the kitchen during my school years. All I had to say was that I needed to practice my piano lesson, and I would be excused from kitchen duty because Mother loved to hear me play the piano. My interest in cooking began to increase when I started my first job after graduating from nursing school. I rented a small basement suite and I had my own kitchen, and a recipe book from my mother. ...
Read more

Blogs On The Hill

-
Many of my cyber-friends know that I’m not much for watching TV. I love music, and I love to learn new stuff, so I am a fan of YouTube. Politics is something that I won’t discuss if at all possible. So much of what is on TV is focused, either directly or indirectly, to current trends and politics, peppered with antagonistic, hurtful, and unsubstantiated accusations. I’m a Canadian, living in an area that apparently produces ‘dirty oil’. Maybe they meant to say that oil makes your clothes dirty!!!! We have our share of domestic and government problems, as do many other countries. We are inundated with American News and politics, as well as our own, but in a democracy, it is our votes that count.  Voting to me is still a privilege, and I have never missed an opportunity to cast my ballot. Some will applaud the outcome of the vote, others will disagree, but we have to live with it. Why is it so hard to find a positive result instigated by a government decision? In my opinion, the ...
Read more

Cyber Friendships

-
My weekend was wonderful … the weather was ‘ify’ and I was happy to stay home. The housework was done, I don’t have a garden, and I’m feeling quite well. I’ve missed so much of what has been happening with my friends here on The Hill, so I spent much of the day, sending private messages to those who are on my list of friends. I discovered that a number of my long-term friends have not been on The Hill for almost a year. I do know that one of them had been very ill, and I’m wondering how she is or if she survived her physical challenges. All of this activity has got me thinking about the cyber friendships that we make here, even though we probably will never meet them in person. How do we decide who we would enjoy meeting and getting to know, and do we accept every invitation to join someone else’s group of friends? I registered on NOTH only weeks after it was launched, and have enjoyed many wonderful friendships. I’ve also made some errors along the way. Having been a staff helper for...
Read more