I was reminiscing about Christmases of days gone by today, thinking about how we’ve included some of my family traditions with my husband’s familiy traditions – and created our own little family Christmas that all of us enjoy.

I was also thinking of the things that we excluded from our childhood memories.  For me, it’s chili (made with beans – a huge no-no in Texas) and oyster stew for Christmas Eve.  These were the two dishes that my mom’s side of the family embraced – and some of them still do!  Not I – my husband won’t even glance at chili with beans and I refuse to open any type of oyster, be it in a shell or a jar!  My poor Grandpa, God rest his soul, would not be liking this one bit.

“Dreaming of a Great Big Bone for Christmas”

But, there are good things that we both love about our family traditions – like a non-traditional (for us, anyways) Christmas meal with my husband’s family a few days after Christmas … the stockings hung by the chimney with care … the Christmas Eve candlelight service at church where we are blessed to sing the carols and hymns of old.  I don’t think I could do without any of these things, and they’re just a few of the traditions that I hope our children embrace as they grow up and move on to their own familys.

I sure hope you are holding tight to your traditions, too – and creating new ones to last a lifetime!

Thoughts for This Christmas Countdown Day:  Traditions – old and new.  I like to think of it as Love Choices for our family.