Journal Jar

Journal Jar--Christmas

Today while cleaning off my dresser (a historical event to be noted, I'm sure), I came upon a "Journal Jar." You may already know what this is, but I'll explain anyway, just in case. It's a canning jar that is full of questions on little strips of paper that one can draw out and answer as part of keeping a journal or writing your life story. As you can tell by the way I keep up with my blogs, I'm not very good at keeping a journal, either. And keeping this Journal Jar on my dresser is doing me absolutely no good at all, so I moved it in by my computer. I also decided that I'll try to pull a question out of it every few days or so, and answer it on my blog. And if I type out my blogs in a document on my computer first, I'll be writing my life story as well as keeping up with my blog. And my kids will have some interesting (hopefully) information about my life.

So here's the question I drew out first:

Tell about your family traditions: Christmas, birthdays, graduations, July 4th, Halloween, Thanksgiving, hunting, weddings, etc.

Since this could be broken down into several blogs, I think I will do just that. What I'll write will cover childhood traditions, as well as those we started or carried through from adulthood. So to my children, some things will sound famliar, and some things might be of interest if any of them wonder what my childhood was like, back in the time of the dinosaurs. So first, I'll cover Christmas traditions, which will actually be more like "Christmas memories."

Christmas Traditions/Memories
I don't remember too much in the way of Christmas traditions that were different from most people's traditions. We had a Christmas tree, we had presents, and we had Santa Claus. Somewhere in my photo archives I probably have pictures of our Christmas tree, and perhaps opening up some presents. Did we have a traditional Christmas dinner? I don't remember anything in particular, and in the foggy recesses of my memory I remember some nice dinners at my aunt's house which could have been Christmas dinners. I remember her green pears, and wondered how they got to be that color. I remember that us kids were usually stuck at the dinner table where we couldn't get out easily when we were done eating, and I remember crawling under the table instead of trying to get a dozen adults to move so we could get out. I remember the huge table in my aunt's dining room. I think most of the family fit around that table. The aunt whose house we were at did not have children, but she had a huge house and it was in Portland and she loved to entertain. I remember her "lazy susan," which sat in the middle of the table and would spin around. I don't remember what she put in it, but it was always there at family dinners. There were two kids in our immediate family, my mother's other two sisters each had three children and her only brother also had three children. My mother's oldest sister's kids were a lot older than us, I don't remember them coming to the holiday dinners. Two of my uncle's kids were also quite a bit older than us, but I think they came. He had one daughter, Vicki, who was only two years older than me and we got along well. My other aunt's kids were closer to my brother's & my age, and we always had a good time, too.

Christmas Eve night seemed like the longest night ever! My brother & I would sneak downstairs several times during the night to see if Santa Claus had come, and try to figure out what we got, in the dark. Sometimes it was easy--can't mistake bicycles for something else. If I had asked for a doll, I could usually tell if I got one, although I couldn't usually make out the details. But it seemed like we never slept all night long, as we waited until we could open our presents. Ah, childhood!

Later on, after I had met my "soon-to-be" husband, I discovered another tradition that we have adopted into our family: Getting together on Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa's house (or in our case, at the parents house). I was invited to this event the Christmas before our February wedding, and in all the years since then, we've only missed one Christmas Eve celebration--due to weather. All the kids and grandkids would come, my mother-in-law would make the traditional hot potato salad, we'd have sandwiches, potato chips, a veggie tray, punch, and I don't remember what all--but if anyone went hungry it wasn't because of lack of food. My mother-in-law wasn't in very good health the few years before her death in 1987, so it often fell to my husband and/or his only sister to help make the potato salad. It was a SECRET recipe that was carefully guarded by my mother-in-law. She promised to share it before she died, but she wasn't expecting to die of a stroke in June of 1987, and her recipe died with her. Or so it seemed!
When it came time to have our Christmas Eve celebration at my father-in-law's house, we realized we did not have that recipe. Fortunately, dh & his sister put their heads together and came up with something so close, that we can't tell the difference. We're still enjoying this salad to this day, and when dh threatens not to make it, our kids put up such a fuss that he breaks down and does it. Even last Christmas, when we decided to have a variety of soups for dinner instead of the traditional deli sandwiches and all the trimmings, he made our potato salad.
Another Christmas tradition we've enjoyed over the past years has been our dd Heffalump's Christmas morning omelets. She's been married for 12 1/2 years now, and still continues to make them, even if she and her family are not staying at our house. It's a lot of work for her most times, but we sure do enjoy them!

Christmas day has been quieter over the past few years, and will be even quieter this year. Our last two daughters were married this past year, so in all probablility they won't be here on Christmas morning (although Pink Avenger insists she will still come over). Heffalump won't have so many omelets to make this year, if she still wants to do it.

And of course, we do need to remember the real reason for Christmas--not Santa Claus and presents--but the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Let me be the first to wish you-all a very Merry Christmas!

(Next blog--birthday traditions)