Merry Christmas!

We hope that this Christmas is a wonderful time for you and your family. It can be a hard time of year, but the wonderful thing is that we can have hope because of what it is that we celebrate - Jesus coming to earth!

People have many traditions this time of year and we are no exception. Some of our traditions have changed through the years as we've grown up and even since we've moved. One thing we've been doing since the kids we small is that we celebrate Christmas as just the five of us on Christmas Eve. It allows us to have a relaxing day and makes Christmas Day also more relaxing. But the traditions of that day have changed over the years. For many years, we had Belgian waffles, eggs, and sausage for our first meal, and then we had tacos later for our second meal. A few years ago, we changed to cinnamon rolls, fruit, and cheese for "breakfast" and then moved our Belgian waffle meal to "dinner". Sometimes change is good and even delicious!

A unique tradition that our family has is that on Christmas Day, one of the desserts is a red velvet cake with chocolate frosting. We put a candle in the top and all the kids sit around and we sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. Even though the "kids" are adults/teenagers now, we still do it and it's a fun way to remember Who we are celebrating. Has anyone else heard of or done that tradition in any way?

Here is one favorite Christmas tradition from each of us!

Dan: I like saving Christmas morning for worship, which we can do by having our family Christmas the day before. Also, the yummy breakfast foods ;)
Carrie: Decorating the house together. There are so many traditions and memories associated with that!
Sarah: I love making anise/springerle cookies for my Grammy. My Oma helped me when I was little but I've been doing it myself for years. The most fun part is finding creative ways to give them to her so she doesn't know what she's getting.
Joe: Doing our family Christmas on Christmas Eve. I like being *unique*.
Mark: All the music and movies that we experience every year. For example, Grandpa always plays "Happy Birthday, Jesus" on Christmas Day.