This year I sent out holiday cards for the first time in years. Luckily, we scored a great family photo taken at a recent family event (it is not easy to locate a photo where everyone is actually looking at the camera and not making funny faces) .

So, I designed a nice Christmas card, stuffed and labeled the envelopes (with help from my favorites elves).

When it came time to address the cards, I realized that my address book was really out of date. I have to admit that it was kind of a “downer” to see the names of so many people who had passed away or were no longer “part of the family”.

It dawned on me that we not only have to remember to take time to be grateful and appreciative for all that we have in our lives…Christmas is also about remembrance. It is good to spend time thinking about memories of Christmas past….especially those memories of those we have lost.

Sure, we all remember the gifts we received like board games, Barbie dolls, coloring books & crayons.

What I cherish more are the memories of family time and playing board games with my parents and relatives….memories of the amazing food and everyone sitting around the table….and opening gifts in a big frenzy! (we did not open one by one…they let us just “go at it”).

Since we live away from the family, we had to get used to doing things a bit differently. I realized we have developed our own traditions like our gingerbread village decorating party, Christmas Eve Pasta, Christmas Day Beef, visiting with friends and playing Christmas music on the piano.  It is also amazing to see how much our extended family has grown with new family members and friends…   

This year, the boys have really helped me a lot.  I loved hearing them remember all of the things that are part of our family holiday traditions. I hope that when they are grown and have their own families that they look back and remember their Christmas holidays as fondly as I do mine.

Merry Christmas! Enjoy!

Denise