Soft and Serene...

 Painting by Liz Lemon Swindle

A simple little Christmas is how we prefer it, no hustle and bustle of must dos for us. Filling our home with love and care for each family member. We sit in front of our Christmas tree, sing songs about Jesus and read of his birth.

There is something so enjoyable about the soft glow of the tree after the kids are in bed. Silence fills the air and I enjoy a glass of homemade eggnog.

In this world where we get so caught up in our shopping lists, our holiday plans, all the cooking, and the demands from our children, it is hard to relax and remember that the love of our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ is the reason we do all this.

Our family traditions are but few, but really bring harmony into our home. We spend the weeks leading up to Christmas preparing simple decorations, and we listen to Christmas music while we prepare to get the tree. For us, a real tree is the only way to decorate for Christmas, so out we go to the tree lot (or farm, if one is close enough) to pick out the tree as a family. Two headaches later, it is standing tall in the our living room and we are pulling out lights and ornaments. Sailor Mom will make Hot Cocoa and the kids will run around singing and playing. Then it is time to decorate the tree, Sailor Mom and I will place the lights on and then each person helps place the ornaments around the tree.

It is my nightly ritual to sit by the tree with all the lights off and kids sound asleep and think about our Savior, sometimes I pray, but I will remember the love of Christ and enjoy this time for a few moments before bed.

Christmas Eve, we gather round and sing songs and read stories of Jesus, usually hot cocoa is involved again, as this is a tradition from Sailor Mom's childhood. We usually prepare a small gift that can be opened on the eve and we talk about how important Christ is to all of us.

Now it is time for bed. I am excited for the morning as this is the biggest breakfast of the year at our house. This is a tradition from my childhood as we fill the air with the aroma of bacon, sausage, eggs, pancakes, waffles, and much much more. Breakfast is usually so big, we eat it for lunch and sometimes dinner too.

Finally, it is time to hand out our gifts. We choose to focus on Christ, so we don't do Santa, so our gift giving is usually smaller and more personal. A few gifts for each child and always something was made especially for each one. This year, Sailor Mom has been busy sewing pajamas and she finished Little Miss' quilt. (Each of our children have a patchwork quilt that we make, they all look kind of alike but have different materials and patterns. We make them large enough to last through there whole childhood.) It is a fun tradition for us as well as for our kids. We spend the rest the day relaxing and playing games, enjoying the family time, we have hot cocoa at least one more time and when we lived in the colder climates, it was the warm up from playing outside in the snow.

All in all, we usually have a very happy Christmas and wish the very best to all our friends and family.

"Merry Christmas"