Day 12 of Just Joy's Christmas Traditions Countdown:About the time I was in high school, my parents started hosting a Christmas Eve open house for some of the extended family. Over the years it became a much loved and looked forward to evening. Mom spent weeks cooking and baking for it. A few days before, my dad would start decorating their downstairs family room. He loved lights (I obviously inherited that from him) and would string them around the walls and windows making the room quite magical. Our whole family would crowd into this small room and have a wonderful meal followed by the littles acting out the Nativity, and then a talent program. There was a small gift for...
Day 11 of Just Joy's Christmas Traditions Countdown:I think most of us would agree that the greatest Christmas story we can share with our families is the story told in the Bible in Luke 2. The story of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. There are many other stories as well that have become traditions on our family, 24 to be exact. Years ago my sister and brother in law gave us a Christmas countdown that is a collection of stories along with a song and scripture for every day in December up to the 25th. Every night before bed we light our Christmas countdown candle and read a story. I have read these stories every year for 13+...
Day 10 of Just Joy's Christmas Tradition Countdown:Christmas Eve has always been huge in my family. SO many Traditions related to that. But whenever I think about what treat I want to bring for the Christmas Eve party I always remember my Grandma making caramel covered marshmallows. I don't think I have ever seen it anywhere else or know of anyone else that makes them but I think it was my favorite treat out of all of the amazing goodies. My Grandma loved to cook and spent WEEKS preparing food and treats for the big night. I'm not even sure I have her recipe for the caramel topping and I'm not a good cook so I'm not sure I could...
Day 9 of Just Joy's Christmas Traditions Countdown:About fifteen years ago I decided to attempt putting together my parent's history. I knew it wasn't going to be easy but I wanted to try. It was like pulling teeth to get information from them about their lives. They didn't think there was anything interesting enough to record. I started in the summer and would give them each a list of 10 questions about a certain time frame in their lives. I would give them a week or so to write the answers and give them to me and then I would give them ten more. In about November, I put both booklets together along with what pictures I could find. I...
Day 8 of Just Joy's Christmas Traditions Countdown:The best and most treasured gift I have ever been given was the gift of having all of my boys under one roof for the holidays. My youngest son was born at 27 weeks and spent 285 days in the hospital his first year of life. That time in the hospital included his first Christmas. I remember vividly that Christmas Eve having to leave him in the hospital and be home with my other son who wasn't feeling well while my husband took my other two boys to try and have as normal of a Christmas Eve as possible at the family party. My heart was broken as my family was in three...
