Feliz Navidad!!!

Merry Christmas friends and family! It's Saturday morning and we have made it to Christmas break. It's tougher for me living in a tropical country to feel like it's Christmas, as I grew up experiencing snow and freezing temperatures. My sister-in-law sent me a Christmas survey this morning and it got me thinking back to childhood memories and the traditions that we have as a family around Christmas. The nostalgia (by the way, Marcel is my spell checker as I'm writing this), surrounding the holidays is amazing. As I get older, I wonder how much of the holidays is the nostalgia, wanting to relive a memory of the past, a childhood gone by, and how much of it is enthusiasm for the actual season.
Wow! How do I transition from that last statement to something more light hearted, which was what I intended to do when I was thinking of posting something this morning? I really just wanted to jot down a few of my favourite memories. There are some definite things that I will miss this year. I will miss my family discussing when we should open the one Christmas gift on Christmas Eve. My dad reading from Luke before we can open the gifts. Paul convincing us he knows all of his gifts before he opens them, and sure enough he does. My mom working hard in the kitchen preparing food all day long. My grandpa's arguing over some topic that they very passionate about at the moment. Our family gathering around the table at night, deciding what flavour of chips to open while we play games. My brothers cheating at the games because they are such poor losers, but try to justify it somehow. It all comes down to time with family and friends, not what we do or how we do it, but the fact that we get to spend time together that makes Christmas special for me.
With that in mind...I am going to go shopping for some food and do some baking this afternoon. It's time to get into the season before it's over. We're going to make the most of the holiday even though all of us are away from family and friends. To all of you back home...Happy Holidays.