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!
Tags: Celebrate Traditions Gifts Family
