Christmas Traditions Tag

Christmas Traditions I grew up with...

We always had homemade candy. Grandma Danes made the best Divinity, Boston Creams, Toffee, Fudge and Pinoche. She would make it early in the month and freeze it....I always thought frozen candy tasted great:)

Real Christmas tree and the larger lights...colored, not white. Grandpa Danes made sure the tree was up and the lights on, then all the kids woulds hang ornaments on the tree. We always hung tinsel and G'pa was very particular about it going on the tree one strand at a time. It was beautiful and glittery.

At some point during the Christmas season G'ma always read to us "The Gift Of The Magi". It has remained a favorite of mine through the years.

Christmas caroling...all of us kids would go out singing to all our nieghbors. I don't remember G'ma and G'pa going with us much. Sometimes we had extra neighbor kids that went as well.

Drawing names and Christmas shopping for each other. In a large family it was kind of intimidating to buy for everyone.....I don't know that we could have afforded that anyway. But we still enjoyed exchanging gifts.

Christmas Eve, reading the Christmas story from the Bible, sometimes acting it out.

Traditions with our children....

Definitly carried on the christmas treats, but had more cookies than candy. I still do G'ma Danes' Toffee and have tried the Boston Creams a time or two, but I was never much good at the Pinoch and definitly not the divinity. I picked up a No fail Fudge recipe somewhere along the line that I use and have shared.

Aunt Annette sent us a Christmas Advent Story Book one Christmas and our children all loved it! We have read from it every year, sometimes by the light of the tree, sometimes by candle light, but all the stories were loved, and we have added to them till we could read more each night.

Aunt Kathy got us started on Gingerbread houses and we love that tradition also. Isn't sharing fun? We have shared gingerbread houses with so many families!

Caroling on Christmas Eve, this was usually done to manage all the enthusiasm, the kids had SO much energy! Bill would take his guitar and play, as the kids got older we all sang in harmony and had our own little choir.

Opening Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve. Most of these were homemade, but I eventually succumbed to the ease of purchasing next year's PJ's at the post Christmas sales...Yeah sales!

Pictures by the tree before and after opening PJ's

Almond Danish Puff for Christmas breakfast, that later turned into cold cereal or pop tarts but the Amond Danish tradition has once again emerged...Thanks to Calista reviving it when her family lived with us in Kuna.

Yearly ornaments for each of the kids. Sometimes we made them, sometimes they were bought, sometmes they were made by one of my sisters or brothers and given to us for Christmas. Each one a memory we could talk about as we decorated the tree...

Christmas Tradions for the futre??? Who knows, but I will treasure all these traditions and memories:)

Wait! I finally wrote something!!

Wow! I can't believe I am finally doing something about a blog! Some of you have seen my name up on my kids blogs and visited me only to find...NOTHING. Well, that's because Calista helped me set up my blog spot one night after I had taken my night meds (which include something to help me sleep since I am a long time insomniac) A couple of days later when I decided to do something with it, I didn't remember my password or clue or anything. (Can we say Techno-retard?) OK... I am smarter now! I had Calista set up the whole thing and just tell me what the password is. I told my computer to remember it this time, but in case it doesn't, I can call Calista! Pretty cool huh?

On to us...
Bill is happy with his job at the South Depot. He works as an instructor teaching people the safe disposal of chemical warfare. He works 4 days a week and is gone 11 to 12 hours a day. Meanwhile, with an empty nest, I am working full time for the church in the Beehive clothing plant, making garments. I do 3 different operations on the nursing garments. One day I was having a very hard time and started crying at work. My supervisor asked what was wrong and I told her, "I guess I have been working in nursing too long and now I have turned into a big boob". She looked at me like I was crazy. Oh well...such is life. I work 5 days a week from 6:30AM - 3PM. I am very grateful to be on the Vanpool and be able to nap on the way to and from work. I do not like driving in Salt Lake and I am just beginning to discover that the freeways can be beneficial. We have a cat who adopted us before we left Kuna. Her name is Annie and she thinks she is really something. She has forgotten her humble beginnings and chases off every stray cat that chances into our yard.

Bill is the scoutmaster for the 12 and 13 year old boys and I am in cub scouting as the Webelos leader. You might have guessed it would be scouting. We love our ward and love the Tooele area. We just wish we could transplant all our loved ones nearby.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and sound like it too...so I have begun to haul out the Christmas decor and replace some of our regular stuff with angels and nativities. I have been able to get rid of a number of things since we downsized when we moved here, but I still have too much to put out. We will probably wait another week before getting a tree, but I'm feeling pretty festive right now. We are toying with having Christmas here and then going back to Kuna for a visit since we both have time off that week...

Well, I thought I pulled Cajon bean soup out of the freezer to thaw this morning for dinner (an unmarked jar) and was going to make some cornbread to go with it...however I just discovered, now that it is in the crock pot, that it isn't bean soup at all. Just some enchilada sauce. I may try Aunt Annette's new enchilada recipe.

Hope you all have a great day and that I cna think of some worthwhile posts....