My favorite time of year growing up was always Christmas. Mostly because of all the presents I got and being blown away by how Santa always knew the perfect gift to get me, and because I loved our Christmas Eve traditions.
My family is made up of just about every ethnic heritage you can think of so my parents came up with a very unconventional Christmas Eve dinner for our tradition. We eat Mexican food! Tacos, enchiladas, refried beans, chips and salsa and more. My mom would occasionally even make flan for dessert. After dinner we would sit around and each read our favorite children's Christmas stories such as:
The Polar Express
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
The Littlest Angel
The Three Trees
new favorite- Too Many Tamales
Santa Mouse
The Night Before Christmas
and many more...
We'd end the night reading the story of Christ's birth out of the Bible and taking a moment to soak in the spirit of the season. It's so easy to forget what we are really celebrating this time of year.
After that, each of us kids would get to open one present which usually ended up being pajamas and then all three of us would sleep in one room. We'd try to stay up as long as we could to see if we could hear or see Santa and his sleigh but always fell asleep before that happened. From the view of our bedroom window was a radio tower which had a red flashing light on its top and I use to imagine that the red light was Rudolph's shining nose and I'd fall asleep waiting to see if it got closer.
Now that we are all older with kids of our own, we've each modified these traditions to fit our indvidual families but I think we've kept if very similar. Spending a quiet evening together letting everyone take part in making that night a very special one is so very important.
So, to all those who read this blog (all three of you) I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a happy New Year. This is the prefect time of year to take some quality time off and spend it with your family. Much love to everyone!
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