[FrouFrou]

during the Holidays?

I saw this question on another site and thought it would be interesting to see what everyone has to say.

So...is it the togetherness of the family? All the GREAT food? The presents? Or is it the decorating? The baking of the cookies? Getting a real tree? Or is it the meaning of Christmas and going to church?

I think that said it all for me. It is usually the one time we can all sit down and have a great meal together with everyones favorite food. Also, while it's not the presents for me, I love to see everyones faces light up when opening their gifts. It takes me back to when I was young and all the excitement of the holidays. Not so much the presents as I said but it was always a big family gathering for us with Aunts, Uncles and cousins-I absolutely loved it! My mothers family would take turns hosting Christmas and Thanksgiving at their homes until one Aunt moved to CA and another to new Mexico. But they still managed to come to AR for the holidays. I have to say while I have my own family now I do miss the big family gatherings. And that was what I looked most forward to. Of course once I had my own family I looked most forward to the decorating and making our own little traditions and having family gatherings at our house. I loved decorating and always got anxious after Thanksgiving. But in the beginning we went to get a real tree, always a noble fir, on Dec. 1 and then decorated then. I hated when it was all over because the house seemed so cozy and smelled sooooo good. The holidays seem to go by too fast for me.

Okay, so now that I went on and on it's your turn ladies.

What do you look most forward to during the holidays?

:merry:

[Jane]

Great topic, Cristi. I love it all, too. The togetherness is most important, of course, and especially on Christmas Eve when we all go to the candlelight service at church. That's about the only time we all go. But I do love to see the faces when someone gets a present they really like. Dale just soaks it all up, because his family didn't have special traditions at all, and often didn't do anything special at all for Christmas.

But it's the little kids who make it magical around here! Makenzie-the-twin is trying SOOOO hard to be good, lol, so Santa will bring her some toys. It's a challenge for her, lol. And none of them are greedy. Their lists for Santa are short, which makes me proud of them.

This year, though, I have two things I'm really looking forward to: one is that Gina will be officially engaged to Terry. I love her and the 2 kids so much, and welcome them with open arms to our family. And the other is that it will be Mackenzie-the-five-year-old's first time to read from the bible, She's been practising, and I do believe she has it memorized, lol.

[Marti]

I've been meaning to get to this thread when I had more time....well now I have some time before I go to bed.

What do I look forward to most?
The family getting together on Christmas Eve at my grandparents. We've been doing this since we (me, siblings, cousins) were all babies...and now we're all grown up w/our babies and children. It's just something we love doing.
We exchange gifts, but the best part is just being together and catching up w/each other since everyone lives in different towns or state.
This year is going to be harder for us all since we will be missing grandma this year. We will be remembering her and share memories. I'm planning on after the holidays, doing either a scrapbook page or a shadow box in memory of grandma.

On Christmas day, I really look forward to AFTER the gifts are open and we (James, me, & Jhanai) just spend the entire day relaxing and being together.

great thread Cristi!

[PamPSM644]

My son and I have very little family. There is only my sister who is a meth addict and has terminal cancer but my son has a wonderful girlfriend who comes down with her whole family to open gifts and have dinner together. I love cooking for everyone. I love the sound of carols in the background ,the ripping of paper followed by squeals of happiness. I love the confusion, the mess of bows and paper, I even love the sink full of dirty dishes and the chain of hands washing and drying. :sman: