GodFamilyCrafts

Hi Readers.

As the Advent, Christmas and New Year’s celebrations draw to a close, and Epiphany brings it to a finish, I wanted to share some of our family’s holiday traditions with you.

• When we set up the Christmas tree, Mom or Dad, makes Nachos and we eat as we decorate.  It is simple, quick and made to each person’s preferences.
• Throughout Advent we light our Advent Wreath and pray the Advent ceremony most evenings. We use booklets I put together 20 years ago. Some songs have been added and a ceremony or two such as blessing of the Christmas tree.
• We hang 2 white dove ornaments near the top of the tree, where they can fly together, in memory of the 2 babies  we’ve miscarried. We know they have gone before us to heaven, and we will meet them someday.
• Christmas eve we celebrate with the family, those who live at home and those who have grown up and moved away.  Hot Spinach dip, made using jalapeno cheese is this event’s tradition.
• Midnight Mass, even though I am oh, so tired, is always a beautiful worship experience.
• Christmas morning we pray a decade of the rosary together in the den, the 3rd Joyful Mystery, the Nativity.  We then process to the living room with the lighted Advent/Christmas wreath and sing Joy to the World.
• It’s an eat as you go breakfast, as we open gifts. Chocolate from the Christmas stockings is always the first food of the day!
• Gift opening is a long process with lots of people in the house — one year it was close to 4.5 hours! We open one gift at a time - a gift presented by the giver to the recipient. This allows for each and every gift chosen by someone for another specific family member to have the attention it deserves.
• We may have started a new tradition this year…After making the Christmas Eve meals, I didn’t want to cook on Christmas day too, so the adult children who were there made a spaghetti dinner.  We ate well, and we ate together, and Mom didn’t have to do all the work.
• New Year’s Eve is take-out Chinese Food. New Year’s Day is the Greek Vasilopita, or New Year’s Pita.  A coin (quarter) is hidden in the pita when it is made; the person who gets it in their piece will have good luck through the year. Oldest grandson “got the quarter” this year.
• Epiphany has changed over the years. When the kids were little they dressed as Kings, with bath towels pinned over their shoulders,  and searched through the  darkened house for the baby Jesus.  The oldest led with a star on the end of the yard stick. Then they presented a favorite gift to Jesus.  Now we say prayers and write (with chalk)  the digits for the New Year, 2009, over the door we enter and leave, as a blessing for the year. We also add either our family member’s initials of the initials of the 3 Kings - Caspar, Malchior, and Balthazar. (ie CMB)

It is my hope that you are developing traditions with your own family.  Peace and Happiness to you in this new year!

Ann

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