Every year I look forward to the holidays, especially Christmas!  When I was a kid, Christmas was always a fun time full of good food, family, and anticipation of what we would find under the tree come Christmas morning!  I remember the smells and the decorations and these are probably my most favorite memories from my childhood. My aunt is a wonderful cook and made some delicious candy (I especially remember the divinity!) and breads.  I use my grandma's fruitcake recipe every year and Jay likes it better than his mom's!
I have tried to carry on the tradition plus add a few things of my own.  I usually decorate the inside of the house with decorations and garland galore!  I have scented candles around the house and the smells of baked goodies abound.  I love to wrap the packages with many different kinds of wrapping paper and add fancy touches to make the gift look special.  I put on Christmas music while I am decorating, wrapping, or baking.  I have collected quite a few CDs and tapes over the years! I still enjoy the thrill of secrecy!  The tree is probably my favorite part though.  It is full of handmade decorations and pictures of the kids when they were young.  Each ornament represents something or someone special and I love to reminisce while putting up the decorations.  It is Jay's job to put the tree together (we use artificial due to my allergies) and string the lights.  After that he is done!  Before we went to an artificial tree, we used to tramp our woods and look for the perfect tree.  Jay usually found the perfect tree!  I love to turn off all the lights in the house and just have the Christmas tree lights on.  It is soothing to me.
 
 I like to start the Christmas cards and maybe some decorating around the first of December.  We get to  enjoy the decorations for a month then!  I don't enjoy the shopping so much so I try to have it all done by Thanksgiving.  That way I don't have to contend with the crowds!  I try to make as many gifts as possible but some years I haven't been able to do as much as I would like to.  One thing my kids still look for every year is the Life Saver Candy book!  I started getting Jenni and Michael one every year when they were young.  I have started doing it with my grandson now and will for Kaity when she is older!  Every year I buy a new game for us to play on Christmas Eve and put it under the tree from Santa. I'm still a kid at heart!!  We buy  two toys a year for Toys for Tots--one for a boy and one for a girl.  I feel it's important to instill the fact that not everyone can have a great holiday like we do and that we should always help others in need.  I started doing that as soon as Jenni was old enough to understand and could pick out gifts.  Hopefully she will carry on this tradition with her daughter.  We also take a couple of bags of food to local food banks or churches and make cash donations to the local food bank.  Some years it isn't much but a little can go a long way.
 
On Christmas Eve we get together with Jay's family and exchange gifts.  Usually there is so much food that it hardly gets a dent put in it.  We have finger foods such as ham, rolls, relish tray, and too much baked goodies!  We usually get together around 5 or 6 in the evening and are done by 7 or 8.  Afterwards, we come home and have our own Christmas Eve.  Jenni crawls under the tree to find the game and then opens it.  We spend the rest of the evening playing games while listening to Christmas tapes and eating sausage, cheese, and crackers!  Jenni loves it and looks forward to doing the same with Kaity.  This was a tradition that I started when she was young and it has just carried on since then.  When we are through playing games, Jenni begs to open one gift and then spends a lot of time trying to decide which one!  Usually after that it is late and everyone heads to bed (but sneaks out sometime during the night to fill stockings!).  Usually we are up early Christmas morning and Jenni has the job of getting all the packages out from under the tree and sometimes that can be quite challenging!  One year we bought her a weight set and I was kind of ornery and put it at the very back of the tree!  It weighed quite a bit and she had to really struggle to get it out! But she was a good sport and laughed along with everyone else!  Then we all open our presents and ohh and ahh over things. I am always the last to get mine open since I spend most of my time taking pictures and watching everyone open their presents.  After we clean up the paper, I put a ham in the oven and then kick back.  I did all the baking and cooking the day before!!  We have a couple of salads to go with the ham, fresh bread, pies, and snacks and we eat on paper plates (very unusual around here!).  It's the one day of the year that I think I should have off too and take it easy. Usually neighbors will drop in or call and mom and Jerry come over for dinner and spend the day.  If we have enough snow, we hop on the snow mobiles and buzz some of our neighbors!  It's an annual tradition and one I look forward to!!
 
Thanksgiving is going to be here this year and I think Christmas is too.  So I will be spending the next couple of weeks cleaning and getting ready for family!  It's a lot of work but well worth it.  But the best part of all is the real meaning behind Christmas.  To celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who died for ALL OUR SINS.  What a selfless gift and one we would do well to remember!