Christmas Eve

The best part of Christmas, as a parent, is the night before. Christmas lists were done, Santa had already been visited.

1967

We would visit with various aunts, uncles and cousins, have a wonderful dinner with the most yummy desserts. We are not a one-dessert family. It is always multiple pies, apple, pumpkin, chocolate cream and maybe banana or coconut. There is always a huge array of cookies; chocolate chip, oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate swirl, almond crescents, ginger bread men, and the extra yummy Linzer tarts, all handmade. Then, if you do not like that, we have brownies and ice cream, A cake or 2 and on rare occasions, an edible ginger bread house. The cousins are running through the house trying to protect their toys from being ripped to shreds. They are allowed to exchange their cousin gifts then.

A Friend, Loli, Rennie, David, Cousin Sharon, Barb

Rennie, Jeffrey, Barb,David, Donna, Jennifer

Then we would head back to our own homes to prepare for the big event. It was often cold, dark and snowy, late in the evening. Sometimes there is crunchy snow and a big full moon makes the snow shimmer. You want to keep stepping all over it just to hear the crunch. Just like popping the packaging bubbles. In our house when you went to sleep Christmas Eve, there was no tree or trimmings to be seen. Santa brought everything! The children were dressed in their footed Carter pajamas, told the sooner they went to sleep the better it was for Santa, prayers were said, we read The Night Before Christmas, cookies and milk left for Santa and soon they were off to sleep.

Sleep, Sleep, Sleep

Then the fun began. Al and I would have to put up and decorate the tree, try to remember where all the presents were hidden, put together all the items that needed assembly, (insert tab A into slot B…). We often did not finish well into the early morning. But we always allowed a little time to turn off the house lights, turn on the tree lights and sit and admire the quiet and what we had done. There is something magical about that night. The lights are low, imperfections are hidden and you see the world and each other in a different light. Children are sleeping, sugar plum fairies dance in their dreams along with the Barbie doll airplane and the GI Joe trunk and the Planet of the Apes set and the bikes and… the list is so long. The children are sleeping and you are making magic happen. The house and the food and the clothes and the hard work are not magic to them. What happens Christmas morning is the magic to them.

Barb's New Fur Coat

The Footies

Mom, Daniel and more Footies!

The Year of The Moustache

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So sitting there, in the soft glow of the tree lights, the quiet of the night, the children sleeping, it makes you feel like somehow you ARE the creator. Hands are held, soft words are whispered, “I love you so much”, and "I wish it would stay like this forever”. “Thank you Dear God for our lives, for finding each other” ..“ We are so grateful.”

It was the best part of the day. Time cannot erase that glow from my heart. I hope it never does. I can still sit here now and recapture it. It is good to see my children making the magic happen for their own. It gives continuity to life. It says “I love what you did for me, Mom and Dad, and I want to do it for my kids. “ It is the time when I most appreciate the joy of the Creation and what it means that God expressed His love for us by giving us his most precious Gift, His Son, and all that He has to offer.

"And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. "Luke 2:7

Artist, Ted Henninger
© 2002 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA

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And then....... there was Kansas City. Well maybe we'll write about that later.

Kansas City Country Club Plaza

Did you know I was once a Rockette at Radio City?

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE