It is so hard to believe that Christmas day is upon us once again. I love the Christmas season its my favorite. I have many fond and extremely happy memories and some sad ones too.
I can recall back to when I was 5 and we lived in the big house my dad built on 4he hill. That year was magical for me. My family is eroupean and we celebrate Christmas on the 24th at night after our big meal with family. That year I got Dungo from Santa… I don’t know exactly how my parents did it but it sounded like Santa’s sleigh on the roof and when dad opened the door he reached up and grabbed dungo and gave it to me….. p.s. I still have dungo.
Over the years my parents did their best to give us a good Christmas. There were some very lean Christmas’s as well. The year dad left us our gifts came from the Sally Ann. It was the only gift I got that year. Years later when us kids were teens and going to church we would always share what little we had with friends that didn’t have anywhere to go for Christmas. Those were good years and great memories. We would from time to time have some emotional moments at the season but all in all there are all good memories.
I have to say Christmas 1992 was the best year by far. That’s the Christmas Rusty and I started to get to know each other. I remeber sharing candy canes in church service with russ and “pop’s”…. best Christmas.
Of course they got better from there on in and we even pondered getting married at Christmas…. glad we didn’t wait. That was the year Christmas took a bit of a sad turn. Rusty’s dad passed from a battle with cancer 10 days before Christmas. Our first Christmas married. The best part that year was Carrie. She was just old enough to be into opening gifts…. we celebrated at Scott and Angie’s place…. in between tears and smiles we got through that year.
We had quite a few Christmas’s after that when we hope that we would be parents it never happened so we focused on our nieces and nephews. What else could we do. We had some great seasons whereby we had plenty and the gifts abounded. We also had a seasons where we didn’t get ourselves much if anything just so that we had something for our families, especially the kids. And no one knew any better then us.
We volunteered at church plays and for a few years really donated our time to that. I guess it filled the empty void in our lives. I also really looked forward to getting together with Rusty’s aunt Debbie and uncle Paul. Those get togethers were so nice. His grandparents and many others…. fond memories of aunt Debbie sneaking out for a smoke between getting the meal ready for the big crowd. Loved their real tree in the front window.
Every year we spent it with family eating and celebrating and giving and enjoying family. Our trips north to my sisters old farm house for good eats and awesome coffee and lots of fun conversations and wierd movies. Oh yes tobogganing down the driveway on crazy carpets with the kids.
I guess I would say one of the downsides and hardest adjustments of living here now on the island is that…. not getting together with family to celebrate. We don’t have that big meal….. we don’t all go to church together and sometimes we didn’t even speak on the phone til the next day….. a hard adjustment.
But Rusty and I have each other and we celebrate the season and I still love it with all its memories. I have a Christmas bucket wish list but I guess time will tell if any of those entries will get crossed off.
I really enjoyed this year. I have 2 Christmas trees up…. I have candles and wreaths in my windows and that is just a classic old house look. It’s homey and decorated and full of Rusty and me. I made Christmas gifts again this year and I so enjoyed myself. Rusty and I really enjoyed the gift giving this year he got what he wanted and so did I.
It is of course different waiting to hear if anyone got our gifts that we mailed and wondering if they like them….. waiting for warm Christmas wishes and conversations after they have done their thing.
But for absolute sure I have the best hubby ever and we are truly enjoying the time God has given us together. We had my traditional dinner last night…… rouladen and mashed potates… veggies and lots of gravy. We were gonna cook a turkey today but decide the leftovers are always better the next day. So turkey tomorrow with all the fixings.
I have baked cookies, bread cooked food and its awesome. I even used my new rolling pin I got for Christmas this morning♡♡
I find as we age our perspective changes. What once was important has a different priority or place. What is important is what we have today, God has allowed us to have it. We celebrate today being so incredibly grateful for the special gift that God gave us. HIS SON!
Jesus is why we have life, why we have a future and hope…. eternal life. Without him nothing we do in life, nothing we hold dear really means anything.
I am so grateful this year that my relationship with God is so much closer then it has ever been. I am grateful for the amazing husband and best friend God gave me. I am so grateful for the new friends I have they are gifts from God. I am grateful for the relationship with my mom and sisters….. and blessed to have family that cares.
These are the blessings of the season and the reasons why Christmas is still my favorite time of year.
I hope that everyone has a chance to celebrate with at least one person and truly finds the reason for the season… hug someone tight and remember the good memories from the years past. Look forward should the Lord tary making more memories.
Merry Christmas every. Thanks for dropping by and reading my ramblings from life on the muddy boots old houses and the farm homestead.
Love to you all.
I decided to just add a bunch of random pictures below no particular order but all about us and Christmas and the food this year and previous.
I made the picture below as one of our gifts this year. It’s my favorite picture that Rusty took and it really captures us♡
Muddy Boots, Old Houses and The Farm 