The Craftiest Workshop

Our Christmas Eves for many years had a few traditions: we ordered McDonald’s for supper, the kids could open one gift and we all went to mass sometime in the evening. As the kids got older and sometimes McDonald’s closed early on Christmas Eve, traditions changed.

This year we will probably have nachos, someone MAY decide to open a gift and no one will be going out to mass; it will have to be watched online.

Every year since the kids were born, they have received at least one Christmas ornament for Christmas. Some years they also made ornaments at beavers or at school. That means that on our Christmas tree there is a minimum of 66 ornaments (their combined ages) but I would guess the total is closer to 100. Chris and I stopped putting our ornaments on the tree as there simply is no room. Eventually, one day the boys will have their own homes with their own Christmas trees and we can again use our ornaments for our tree.

As Thomas was not yet home when we put up the tree, he arrived the 22nd, I decided to take his ornaments out and take a picture of them all showing the year they were received. I did not include the ornaments he made. When we bought an ornament it was supposed to represent the year. In 2002/2003 he was obsessed with polar bears. In 2003/2004 at age 4 & 5 he was convinced he would become a fireman. In 2008/09 Thomas was obsessed with playing mini stick hockey and loved the Philadelphia Flyers.

Starting in 2011, many of the ornaments are ones that I have made. This year again their ornaments will be homemade and definitely representative of the year we have been through.

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I had to make one for ourselves to remember 2020 as well.

I also have a Christmas scrapbook with pictures, a bit of a description of what we did, and a list of gifts the kids received and from who. In the written excerpts there is are specific notes about events like the year all the kids got chicken pox over the holidays. Another year, a friend of ours was stationed in Bosnia. He sent the boys individual matching cards and a Christmas story he wrote with them as the character “Jonamatom”; I still have the story. Every year describes where we were living and who we spent time with during the holidays. Here are some of the photos.

I have to update the rest of my scrapbook. I have a few pictures in there loose from 2012 and 2013. It will give me something to do in the new year. Once we went to a digital camera, I rarely made prints of any photos. I do have most years since saved in a Christmas Scrapbook folder. Here is my favourite, from 2013.

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On Christmas Day we usually open gifts in the morning. I try some new recipe for a fancy breakfast and it turns out…most of the time. I cook a ham, scalloped potatoes, glazed carrots and homemade buns for supper. Sometimes I make a special dessert and other years we just have a mixed plate of all the baking I have done for Christmas. We spend time on the phone with both sets of parents.

Hanging up Christmas ornaments, each with their own special memory, help the kids to remember the past. Opening the scrapbook and rereading makes the memories flood back; things that I had forgotten. I hope each of you has your own special way of cherishing and preserving your family’s Christmas traditions.

I want to take this opportunity to wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and all the blessings of the season. Peace, hope, love, family and joy is all we need for a wonderful Christmas.