What a delightful day we had celebrating Christmas at home!
We began the day with many of our special family traditions. We talked about the special meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ. Then the last of the advent candles on the mantle were lit followed by the singing of some favorite Christmas carols. The triplet's have really develop of love of singing and have their own personal favorite Christmas carol, Angel's We Have Heard on High. It is so sweet to hear them sing loudly with great joy!
Then came the gifts. Our family doesn't use stockings, we have cloth bags. Our gifts are not put out until late Christmas Eve. This tradition was started out of necessity. When our oldest girls were very young, gifts put out too early tempted little hands to open them before it was time and no stocking could ever hold the bounty our children seemed to always be overly blessed with. Hence the bag and late Christmas gift placing tradition. As the years have passed, less gifts show up under the tree and they tend to have more practical value which is a blessing to us all. This year was no different. Emma & Camie were blessed with new jackets from Nana & Grandpa. The girls were most proud to show us all how well they fit and how good they looked wearing them. Becker and Parker couldn't have been more thrilled with their new Bass Pro camo jackets, also from Nana & Grandpa. Clay was delighted with a small tube of M&M's and proceeded to eat them all before we noticed what he had done. Each person was blessed beyond measure and was most grateful for all they had been blessed with.
For an early dinner, we had our traditional clam chowder meal complete with decorated table of lace, gold beads and many candles in canning jars. After sharing about our clam chowder tradition with a few other people from Oklahoma, we have discovered that this is not a common tradition in this neck of the woods. Go figure?! Anyway, in the Elliott family, this is just one of the many things that we do to help make traditional Christmas memories.
We hope that your family was equally as blessed on this special day of the year with many precious memories you will cherish for years to come.
