Christmas Traditions

I love the simple and lovely traditions that my Mr. G and I have begun since our engagement in 1989.  We began going to Christmas Eve service at our church, then going out to get coffee or hot cocoa and looking at Christmas lights.  Over the years with my Mr. G having Christmas Eve off some years, but not others, we've found that we have to adjust and make our outing another night during the week before Christmas.  We tried it on the 26th and it just wasn't the same.  It was a little disappointing because many people did not have their Christmas lights turned on.  Out of that experience came the decision to try to make our outing the week before Christmas if Mr. G had to work.  The kids love it too and look forward to it with anticipation each year, even as they've grown older.

Another tradition that we sort of fell in to was traditionally having ham for Christmas dinner.  There is a reason for getting the biggest ham we could find.  We always made Split Pea Soup with the leftovers after Christmas.  Once I realized that I could pressure can the leftovers, I ran with it!  This year we had originally planned to either have company over the weekend after Christmas or go to their house.  Either way, we'd make Split Pea Soup and take it with us or serve it here.  We didn't go, nor did they come here, which is probably a good thing  because Mr. G brought some icky virus home from work that he's dealing with now.  I began my day yesterday by boiling my ham bone along with all the leftover ham until it was cooked down a bit in my larger pot.  Then I took all the meat out and the ham bone and cut up the meat in to bite sized pieces.  I added the pre-soaked and sorted split peas, then the meat, then the veggies, herbs and seasonings (light on the salt since the ham is salted), bay leaves and let it simmer until late in the afternoon.  Once everyone had their cup, or cups of soup as the case may be, I had my quart jars pre-sterilized, boiled my lids and rings, started ladling the soup in to the jars, and in to the pressure canner.  We watched the needle on the canner for an hour and a half on 10# of pressure and it was done!  Now we have 5 quarts of Split Pea Soup to enjoy.

They turned out lovely!  We'll use these over wild indian rice with some cheddar and parmesian cheese when we need quick meals.  This next week I plan to do the same thing with chili, then perhaps some chicken noodle soup.  We didn't get any venison this year, so I don't have any stew meat to can, unfortunately. 

Another Christmas tradition, well...it's been more of a round-the-year-habit than a tradition, is that everyone shares the preparations for Christmas dinner.  Here are my two older children preparing their chosen dishes.

HJ is making a fresh vegetable casserole and Daniel is making the Au Gratin potatoes.   I guess he didn't want his picture taken just then!  LOL  

JL had already made the ham earlier in the day so he wasn't busy cooking.   I had made the "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake and it was cooling while these two silly ones were cooking.  

I guess I'm going a little backwards, but on Christmas morning our tradition has been that if you go pick out a gift to open, it cannot be one of your own.  It has to be for someone else to open.  What a fun time to see everyone opening their gifts this way!  

HJ getting gifts for everyone else while Daddy opens his gifts from the children.

The children love laughing and smiling and making Daddy laugh at the funny tshirts they bought for him this year.  The red one underneath the Grinch shirt says, "Coal, I earned it!"  LOL

Our living room...complete with the children's CAP stuff, medicine organizer and head sets on the coffee table.  Yes, it's cleaned up now.  LOL  

This year for the children's "want" gift, we kept it simple and gave them each a fuzzy throw blanket.  They kept taking my fuzzy blanket, so they each have their own now. 

Mickey and Eeyore Jammies were for me from the children.  What a joy!  I received a day planner and a "Mrs." mug from my Mr. G.  He also got the matching "Mr." mug from cbd.com.

HJ and JL lovingly bought an organizational binder for Daniel for Civil Air Patrol.  What a blessing for him!

I love her smile!  Pure happiness!

Getting ready to open gifts from Momma and Daddy.

He loves his "Illegal" shirt! 

Look who is helping JL open his gifts!  LOL

We have other Christmas traditions, like putting the tree and decorations up the day after Thanksgiving.  This year since Thanksgiving came so late, we put them up earlier.  We'll take them down on January 6th.  I know Orthodox churches celebrate Epiphany on that day.  I'm not of the Orthodox religion, but the 6th sounded like a good day to me.  Plus it helps me remember my brother's birthday!  LOL

In years passed, we've baked all kinds of cookies, nut rolls, pumpkin rolls and so forth to share with our Dr's offices, mail carrier and so forth, but with both Mr. G and I being diagnosed with diabetes within the past 2 years, we have been searching for viable alternatives to bake.  Once we get in to the swing of the changes we have to work with, we'll be baking things again.

We're always looking for neat traditions to add to our own.  What neat traditions does your family have?

God Bless,