Tuesday 4: December Arrives

 December Arrives...

Hello and welcome back to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 kept in her memory . We give you 4 things to think about each week and hope it spurs you to blog, connect with fellow bloggers and just stop and reflect!

December is a month filled with religious significance for so many. Christmas(Dec 24-25) and Chanukah(Nov 28-Dec 6). Christians speak of the light coming into the world at Christmas and

Chanukah is the festival of lights when the light was returned to the newly cleansed temple in Jerusalem. So they have a common connection: the light of God in the world.

Let's talk about December and what it has in store for you....

1. How much importance do you place on December holidays? Do you plan and prepare? Is that part of  "Twas the night before Christmas..."the fun for you or would you rather dispense with it?

Christmas is the highlight of the year in so many ways. Although for Christians, Easter is actually the more important Holy day, but without Christmas there would be no Easter.  Jesus, "Emmanuel",  God in the flesh, The Light of the World, came to earth as a baby to live and love and show us the way to heaven...through His perfect sacrifice of Himself on the cross to save us from our sins.

This beautiful "Cradle to the Cross" is in the narthex of our church. The white space at the bottom is actually a cradle, where the "baby Jesus" will be placed on Christmas eve.  I love this beautiful arrangement, and am very pleased to say that my son Benton built the cross that is being used in this display.  

So to answer more of the above question, yes, Christmas is a very special time for our family. Do I plan and prepare? Well...I've been busy the past few days decorating our home. We haven't put up the tree yet, but I am trying to get everything else done first and then we will bring in the tree and decorate it. Here are a few pictures of what I've been doing so far.  This is still a work in progress. 

I think what I love most about the Christmas season are all the lights. Yes, Jesus IS the Light of the World, and that is why we use so many lights to light up our homes and celebrate His birth.  Here's a few examples:

We start with this little grapevine tree on the front porch that I made a few years ago from our own wild grapevines we cut in the woods near our house. That was quite a job, but I sure love this little tree!

We don't do a big outdoor lights display...just enough to let people know we do celebrate Christmas here!

Also, the first thing we did was put out in the front yard this nativity scene and this little Christmas tree that my son built a few years ago. 

Next comes the indoor nativity

 and the Christmas dolls on the buffet...

Then in the kitchen there is the little grapevine Tea Cup Tree:

And then there's the little cabin:

And the other little cabin with the skating pond:

Oh, and let's not forget all our little friends over at Pamela's Victorian Cottage!  (you can click the link for last year's story from here)

They are busily getting everything ready for Christmas too!

There's a lot of other activity going on around the house, but we'll save something for later. Besides, I know "Lily Grace" is going to have some stories to tell soon too, as this is her first Christmas and she is really getting more and more excited every day as she sees all this activity. But we'll save her story for later.

So, I think you can tell by all of this that we do have a lot of fun with Christmas...

2. Food is a big part of the holiday season. Which foods and treats do you most look forward to having?  

One usual tradition is the baking of cookies, primarily my Grandma Mursch's Sand Tarts. Here is a link to tell you more about that.  Of course we enjoy all kinds of cookies, nut breads, pies, candy, you name it, we'll enjoy it if it's there to eat!  

3. It is a season for family, friends, guests and giving. Would you write a bit about how it all comes together for you in December?

Yes, we love to get together with our family and close friends at Christmas. Usually we just have our immediate family together on Christmas day, but then we try to get together with our extended "Florida family" at some time during the holidays for dinner and to exchange gifts, etc.  Although in recent years we have started doing a "white elephant gift exchange" with our extended family, where everyone brings a wrapped gift and then we draw numbers and pick a gift, etc., It is a lot of fun, and no one has to actually buy a gift, which is a gift in itself for those of us who are on fixed incomes and tight budgets.

We also have our traditional special church activities...our ladies' group has a luncheon and gift exchange, and also our choir puts on a Christmas Cantata (musical). I sing in the choir, so that is always a big event that we spend a lot of extra time practicing for.

4. Life changes and traditions alter due to those changes. Has anything changed for you and if so how? If not, would you mind sharing your traditions with us?

Primarily things changed a lot for us as our own parents passed on and we no longer had their homes to gather in for our family holidays.  That was a huge difference for us, and it has taken some time for each of us to adjust to the fact that now we are the older members of the family, and if we want to get together with our siblings and their families, we need to make the extra effort to make it happen.  "Mom and Dad" are no longer here to bring us all together.  And then also for our immediate family,  when our middle son Matthew passed away in 2014, holidays became even more significant to us because we realized just how quickly things can change...and we should not take anything or anyone for granted.  Celebrate with your loved ones as often as you possibly can...make the extra effort, go the extra mile...because once a significant member of your family passes on, there will always be that empty place at your table and in your heart.  

I hope this answers all the questions above!  Here's wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday season!   From our house to yours:

Thank you to Annie of Cottage by the Sea for organizing this Tuesday 4 meme each week. You are all welcome to join in over at Tuesday 4 and add you name to the list of participants. It's a great way to make some new friends too!