Christmas Traditions

Yesterday I got to take part in a variety of Christmas traditions in my hometown.  These were not really family traditions, but more traditions within our church family and group of friends here.

I really enjoyed being able to go to my church here in Smithers.  It was great to reconnect with some friends here.  After the morning service was the annual lunch for post-high students (in the bulletin they listed it as 18-30+) at the Nanninga's house.  The Nanninga's were involved with the youth when I was in middle school, and actually Elaine was my grade 3 teacher.  I got a ride there with Sonia and we spent a couple of hours there with many different people.  Each year it makes me feel a little older, especially this year when I saw at least one person there that I used to babysit - he is now a high school graduate.  The afternoon was filled with visiting and a variety of delicious foods.  I did not come even close to talking to everyone there, but it was fun to visit with different people.

Our evening church service on Sunday was our candlelight service.  I enjoy being able to attend this special Christmas service at our church here.  Through the years the number of candles used has decreased, but it is still a really neat service.  There were eight candles on the organ, our advent candles, and eight candles leading up to the front door.  These candles outside were actually in star shaped ice molds, which looked really neat.  It was definitely cold enough outside to keep the ice frozen.  The service was a combination of carols, special music, readings, scripture passages, and even video clips, which were all used to tell the story of Christmas.

After the service we stopped at home to pick up some goodies, and then headed to the airport to pick up my youngest sister, Janine.  From the airport we headed to Lester's for the annual eggnog party.  Jacquie makes a lot of great eggnog - some for the adults, and other for the kids - and everyone brings goodies to share.  There are always a lot of people there, many of them are teachers from our school along with their families.  Some of them were my teachers when I was in high school.  The evening was a lot of fun, and until someone mentioned something about the time I had no idea how late it was.  We left sometime after 11pm.

Sometime this afternoon, Janine and I will decorate some Christmas cookies.  Mom already made the cookies, but we need them decorated for tonight.  Tonight is another Christmas tradition that has very little to do with Christmas.  Every year we have the Steenhofs over on December 24th for Chris' birthday.  He is a teacher at our school, and the tradition started many years ago when my older sister Lynnea was in his class in 6th grade.  This tradition involves good food, cake, visiting, and sometimes games.

Later this week, after Larissa and Bryan arrive, we will participate in another tradition - going out for breakfast on the day we open our gifts.  We started this tradition when we were visiting relatives for Christmas.  This gave us family time with just our family, and all of our family enjoys breakfast food.

I don't typically think of myself as having a lot of Christmas traditions, but these are all parts of Christmas vacation that I enjoy.  I may also partake in some sledding and cross-country skiing while at home.  I also plan to get together with some high school friends for tea at some point as well as play some hand and foot with Renee.  I hope that you all have a wonderful time with family and friends this Christmas.