A Season of Traditions

Being our first Christmas together, and being that our situation required that we spend it on our own away from family, Kiersten and I have had a wonderful time reflecting on things we love about the Christmas season and traditions that we'd like to start in our own family. Centered among these traditions are the events of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Here's what we did.

Christmas Eve was spent simply but enjoyably. Borrowing my sister Brittany's demanded tradition of having a "walk-around dinner", Thursday night Kiersten and I gathered together all of the treats we had made throughout the past month and arranged them neatly on a plate. Added to the arrangement were beautiful loaves of Kiersten's mom's apple-braided bread, a small stash of peanuts and some surprisingly addicting flavored crackers. We ate and shared stories from Christmas' past.
Once we were snacked out, we opened the scriptures to the accounts of Jesus' birth, first reading from Luke, then from Matthew and finally from 3 Nephi. A tradition I have truly appreciated from Kiersten's family is the interspersing of songs and carols as we read the scriptures. I can't say we sang them all, but it certainly seemed to make the moment more special. We then followed a tradition from my family of opening one (predesignated) present on Christmas Eve. We were enthused to find we had received new closed-toed, indoor slippers (with major emphasis on closed-toed). We then ended the night by filling each other's stocking (thank you Mom!) with oranges, peanuts, candy and the unavoidable new toothbrush. Then, it was off to bed.

The next morning (Christmas Day), we woke early to find stockings and presents laid out by the tree. It was a delightful sight. Before rushing to open presents, though, we pulled out a favorite story of ours to read: O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi." Presents were then opened and stockings were emptied, after which we enjoyed a wonderful pre-made breakfast of cinnamon breakfast buns and homemade eggnog.

The rest of the day (and the next morning) was spent talking to family over Skype and enjoying the company of friends, including a wonderful evening of caroling and breaking a piñata in true Christmas fashion. It was a wonderful first Christmas.