Christmas Eve Nostalgia

Today I have been feeling very nostalgic about Christmas when I was younger. I suppose it's because I especially miss my family a lot at this time of year. I found this fun picture of one of the famous Taylor family Christmas pageants. It looks like Dad is Joseph, I'm Mary, Sarah and our friend Virpi from Finland were wisemen, and our friend Tanja, also from Finland, was the shepherd. We did this pageant each Christmas Eve for many years. Other favorite Christmas Eve traditions included going for drives to see Christmas lights, telling stories and drinking hot chocolate, and setting out cookies and a note for Santa. Christmas morning was always very exciting. Sarah and I were usually the first to wake up. We would run to the kitchen to see if Santa had eaten his cookies and left a note for us. Then we would wake Mom and Dad up. Dad would then go downstairs to wake Lindy and Richard up, and to make sure that Santa had indeed made his stop at our house. Then we would all line up at the top of the stairs, and Dad would lead the way down to the family room where we would open presents. I remember always being so excited about the gifts that I gave and received, but it's funny--I don't remember what most of those gifts were. I do remember so many things about our fun Christmas traditions and all of the things we did together as a family. While it was the gifts that made Christmas exciting, it was being together as a family that made Christmas memorable. I love and miss all of you! Merry Christmas!