The other day I cruised on over to see what Leslie had to say on her blog, and found a wonderful post about Christmas traditions and memories, in response to a post on Jill's blog, asking folks to share their Christmas traditions or memories. It's funny that I found it on the day that I did, because I had been thinking it would be a fun thing to talk about anyway. When the kids were little, we lived in a great old house with an open staircase and foyer, the perfect place for the tree! There was nothing greater than setting that stage and watching the looks on their faces when they came down those stairs in the morning. The tree was always huge, a real tree, one that made the house smell like pine needles. To this day we still use some of those same ornaments (yep, time for some new ones!) but now they hang on a perfectly shaped fake tree since a few years back I caved in to Gary wanting an artificial tree-blech. So now I get a treetop & decorate it to be placed on the kitchen island-he can have his fake tree, but I have to have some real greens in the house. It's sitting in a vase of water right now, waiting for me to fluff it up a bit. 
While we lived in that house, it was large enough that we always got the kids their very own little tree, set it up in the kitchen, and let them decorate & undecorate it to their hearts content. Back in those days, we'd have a houseful of people over for the holidays for a feast & a truly festive celebration, but over the years we've lost a few of those special people, although they're never forgotten, especially over the holidays.
Miz Jessie loved her presents! Her eyes would be huge in the morning and she couldn't wait to rip into those gifts!
Then there was the year that Jeremy was going to be a cowboy. He never did play a lot with those kids guns (good thing-I have gun issues) but the following year he hauled them out and whacked Jessie in the head with one of them, hard enough that she had to go to her Christmas program that night with a big egg on her forehead, poor kid! Like I've said before, never a dull moment with those 2! 
After a little digging around, I found this photo and had to include it, my first Christmas at 7 weeks old:) Do you remember the magic of Christmas when you were little? Do you remember not being able to go to sleep on Christmas Eve, being too excited waiting for Santa to even think about sleep? I do! I'd sneak out of my bedroom about every hour to check under the tree to see if the gifts were there yet, and I suspect that our kids did the same, although we never caught them. And for those of you with kids, do you remember being up until the wee hours on Christmas Eve, making sure the kids were sound asleep before you finished wrapping the gifts and placing them under the tree, taking a bite out of the cookies left out for Santa & draining the milk glass that was left out for him for a treat? Do you remember sitting on his lap and telling him what you wanted, and years later standing in long lines with your kids so that they could do the same? Are you smiling yet at the memories, I am! 
These days, our Christmas looks more like this, hydrangeas, seeded eucalyptus, lots of different greens, like this arrangement made by my friend Cindy at Summerplace Gardens. Things I'd never thought of using until i started working there years ago. 
Or maybe even some funky HUGE ornaments hanging around--------
---- or maybe a traditional spalsh of red. None of those spray painted poinsettias are coming into this house! I know a lot of folks like them, but there's enough natural colored ones to choose from, at least in my opinion. 
Maybe even some playful, whimsical snowmen, you just never know:) One thing I'd like to do this year, is to get to the Neville Museum, where they have an exhibit of the displays that used to be Prange's Christmas windows. Now that was an event! Back when downtown Green Bay was still a shopping district, and you'd walk from store to store, outside in the cold & snow, instead of inside a mall like it is today. Pranges, which is now Younkers, always had these wonderful animated displays in all of their street facing windows, it was worth standing out in the cold just to see them! The one thing we'll do for sure, is get together with the kids and have what has become our traditional Christmas dinner-lasanga! I can't remember exactly how that started, but it stuck, and everyone looks forward to it, and that's all that counts. Is anyone still with me? This got a lot longer than I'd anticipated:) Here's to wishing that all of you are celebrating the holidays in your very own fashion, and are spending it with those that you love!
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