Tuesday 4: Christmas!

 Good Morning Everyone, and Merry Christmas! 4 more days! Are you ready?  Today I will be wrapping, wrapping, wrapping! I hope my arm and back and body holds out!! Hubby said he'd help...

Anyway, today's Tuesday 4 topic is about Christmas, and I feel like I've talked a LOT about Christmas already in so many posts, but still there are questions here that "enquiring minds want to know" about.    However, first things first...Last night over at The Adventures of Lily Grace we wrote about the Angels that are everywhere and the important part they played in announcing the birth of Jesus, the Messiah!  I hope you will go check it out, because Lily Grace sure enjoyed learning all about the angels.

Here's just one of the pictures of Lily discovering the many angels on our Christmas tree and around the house:

So without further adieu, Let's discuss Christmas!

Christmas at Tuesday 4

Welcome Friends.. to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.

1. Is your tree up? How tall... what color lights? Is there a color scheme you use?

I already talked quite a bit about our current Christmas tree HERE, in The Christmas Tree Saga, a couple of weeks ago.  Here's the most recent picture of our tree, taken just a minute ago:

This tree is 7' tall, is about 20 years old, the lights are all clear, and no, there is no particular color scheme. Sometimes I put gold ribbons all over it, but didn't do it this year. There are many angel ornaments and mostly an assortment of ornaments that we have collected over 52 years of marriage. No particular theme...just a lot of love and happy memories. One of the most notable and valuable ornaments we have is this one:

Yes, that is a walnut shell, with glitter on it.  I made several of these beautiful ornaments (!) for our very first Christmas together, 52 years ago.  This is the only one that has survived all these years, and it has a prominent place on our tree every year. Hey! We were poor college student newlyweds! What do you expect?  I love it. It is a symbol of our humble beginnings, and probably tells a bit about our personalities too...just a bit "nutty". LOL.

2. Got a menu for Christmas Eve and Day?

 

We don't do anything special for dinner on Christmas Eve. We go to church for a candlelight service and sing some beautiful Christmas carols, always ending with "Silent Night". Then we come home and most likely either I finish up baking or prep for Christmas day dinner, or just relax and get ready for "Santa" to arrive.  Our menu this year for Christmas day is a family favorite recipe handed down from my paternal Grandma. I've talked about it before. Here's the recipe and how to make it. Our sweet Daughter in Love will be creating and baking this for us again this year. She has added sausage to the recipe and that spices it up a little and gives it more flavor. I will be making scalloped potatoes, perhaps also a sweet potato casserole, and some other vegetables, haven't decided which yet. We will have pies and cookies for dessert I'm sure.  It's just going to be our immediate family on Christmas day. On Sunday, the day after Christmas, my sister and her family are traveling up to be with us after church. We are going to meet at our favorite BBQ restaurant and then come back to our house for our annual "White Elephant Gift" exchange.  It's always a lot of fun.

  
3. When does it go up and how long does it stay up?

I assume we are still talking about the Christmas tree here?  Well, ours went up the first week of December. It took a few days to get it finished.  (see that story I linked in #1 question) It will probably stay up until after New Year's Day.  My family tradition growing up was to leave it up until January 6th, which was my Mother's birthday. She always said that was her family's tradition too, and we always just assumed it was because of her birthday.  However, later in life I realized that day was also "Epiphany" Click HERE for a link to more about that., the day set aside to acknowledge the gifts of the Magi,  or Wise Men, after their long journey following the Star of Bethlehem to worship the newborn King.  It's a very important story in the early life of Christ...read Matthew chapter 2 for more on this!  Anyway, back to the original  question...usually I take down the tree when I am ready to clean up and make more space in the living room again...whenever the mood hits me...but most likely not until sometime that first week of January.

4. What is your favorite Christmas memory. When do you open your gifts?

I wrote about some happy Christmas memories in this post not long ago, complete with pictures.

I have so many happy memories of Christmas...it's always been very special to us. It would be difficult to really come up with a favorite.  Here's one from our early years as a family with our own little boys.  It tells about a Christmas that started out a bit disappointing, but ended up teaching me a valuable lesson, and it has a happy ending.

When do we open our gifts?  Usually on Christmas morning, when everyone is together. We take turns each opening one gift at a time so everyone can see and each gift is fully appreciated. 

But the greatest gift of all was opened for us over 2000 years ago, when Jesus was born in a lowly stable, the Son of God, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Luke chapter 2 tells the wonderful story about this marvelous gift!!

The greatest Gift, Jesus the Savior is born!

I hope your Christmas holiday is merry and bright!
Thank you for helping to make Toni's Tuesday 4 a success.