Christmas Traditions

In thinking back over my 32 years of Christmas, most of my childhood Christmas memories come from the traditions that we did every year. Sorry to bore you with details from Christmas past, but I have said before that one of the reasons for my blog is to have a record for my girls of our life & this is something I thought they would enjoy reading about down the road when they are a little older.

I grew up in a very small Lutheran Church. I so loved the Christmas Program that we had every year. It seemed my part was always to be an angel in the program. I still remember getting to wear the halo made of tinsel. I looked forward to the year that I would finally get to play Mary in the program. After the program we would get a brown paper sack full of treats and peanuts. My Parents & Grandparents never missed a program that my siblings & I were in.

Santa would come on the Eve of Christmas Eve. So Christmas Eve morning we would all wake up early to see what he had left under the tree for us. The night before Danielle & I would look at all of the cookies Mom had decorated and find the most perfect cookie for Santa, and of course we had to leave a carrot for Rudolph.

Christmas Eve was spent at my Grandpa & Grandma Noble's in Albion. From little on I remember that we always ordered Pizza Hut pizza. It was something I thought was a real treat. Grandma would make her famous cheese ball and my Aunt Jean and my Mom brought the best trays full of cookies. After we ate supper all of us kids had to go to the basement so Santa could come. My siblings and I had already had Santa so we did not get anything else from him, but my cousins had their Santa gifts and Grandpa & Grandma's house. It was always so fun to think that he was right up stairs!!! Then we would open our gifts from Grandpa & Grandma, play some games and head for home or church. Every few years our Church would have a Christmas Eve candle light service. I LOVED when we would go to a packed church and celebrate the birth of Baby Jesus.

Christmas morning we would get up early and get ready to go to my Grandpa & Grandma Forre's house. My Grandpa was 100% Norwegian so we knew we could look forward to a Norwegian Christmas meal of lutefisk & lutefisk. My Mom & Aunts made Norwegian cookies, Rosettes, Kringla & Krumkake, yum yum!!! Grandpa would wear the same yellow sweater that he had wore every Christmas day since the 1970s until his last Christmas in 2006. It was an all day celebration and in the evenings along with Danielle & my cousin Renae we would put on a Christmas program for the rest of the family. We would sing songs from our Christmas programs at school, play our musical instruments & play lots of games. So much fun!!! Of course we would eat all day long!!!!

Well now that I am all grown up things have changed a bit. We celebrate Christmas very early on the Noble side. Usually the first weekend in December. We still order pizza :-)

We usually spend Christmas Eve with Kyle parents. Marilyn cooks up a storm and we all look so forward to her good food and playing games. Oh and did I forget to mention opening the gifts!!! I am sure Jenae & Aubree will be asking "how much longer utill we can open presents" from the moment we walk in the door until we give in and let them start.

Christmas Day is going to be at my parents house this year. It is a challenge to find 1 day that work for all 4 of us kids. We are all married and have several Christmas that Mom & Dad need to schedule around. For the past few years it has been more of a New Year's celebration. I am looking forward to actually being there on Christmas Day this year.

We will go to my Grandma Forre's house on Sunday. We did not make it there for Easter or Thanksgiving so I am pretty sure Grandma is holding us accountable to be there for Christmas!! She still fixes the traditional Norwegian meal along with an American Christmas meal for the in laws :-)

Writing about all of this really makes me miss my Grandpa's, but also makes me realize we have to cherish every moment we have. We do not know what is in store for our future so we need to make the most out of the present!! Did you ever stop to think why the present it call the present? It is because everyday is a gift from our Heavenly Father! Merry Christmas Everyone!!!