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Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Christmas traditions

Christmas is next week.  We don't have a tree up, I suppose one of us will go to the store and pick up and smallest tree we can find and I will pull out a few ornaments and call it good.  I am so sad all of our Christmas traditions are going away.  For all of my life, Mom and Dad would find the biggest tree posssible and put it up 2 weeks before Christmas.  We always had a real tree until Chuck said he was allergic and they got a fake tree (funny, he can go hunt and fish all he wants and is not allergic then).  It was always a great fun time to decorate and it took hours.  Mom always made tons of Christmas candy.  Dad always made the peaut brittle because it had to be stirred and stirred and stirred and he was the strongest of us all.  He was always very proud if he could get it very thin.  Both Mom and Dad loved Christmas and spent way to much money on the holiday.  They never stressed about it.  They never complained about it.  On Christmas eve we would always have fish and lentils.  Mom would tell the story about this being a poor mans dinner, so we eat it as a symbol of feeling Jesus plight.  The kids would eat the lentils even tho they didn't like them.  It was a game to see what bad faces they could make.  We were told the more lentils we ate, the more prosperous our new year would be. Everyone would eat at least two bowls full.  Santa always came to our house on Christmas Eve.  Dad would take us outside because he heard sleigh bells and had to look for Santa's sleigh.  When we came back in, the tree had exploded with presents.  I am still amazed at the volume of presents!  I have wonderful memories of Christmas. 
I am sad that I am not helping to create memories and traditions for the grandkids.  I hope I have given my kids memories ..... and they will continue to give their kids memories.

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