Christmas Memories
The joy, love, and laughter of Christmas past will always linger in my heart and mind. I'm blessed. My family in rural South Carolina were close and came together during holidays. The traditional low country pig cooked over coals for hours while men sat around keeping the coals hot and sampling the meat and sauce. The sauce was a vinegar base with lots of peppers and the sampling helped them make it perfect. With most families cooking their Christmas pig, the delicious smell lingered in the air all around Puddin Swamp. Once the meat came off the coals, families came together for good food and fellowship.
My earliest memory of Christmas is the Evans family gathering on Christmas Eve
My earliest memory of Christmas is the Evans family gathering on Christmas Eve
with good barbeque, lots of homemade cakes, cousins playing, aunts and uncles sitting around talking, and Santa knocking on our bedroom window after we had gone to bed. Yes, there would be Santa at our bedroom window. Did we ever go to sleep! Later, I found out it was Uncle ML. It is odd that my memories are not about what I got for Christmas but about family.
Those family traditions change over the years. Granny passed away to glory. Then, aunts and uncles made their own memories for their families. My father continued to cook barbeque and it got better every year. Christmas Eve continued to be special for us with some family joining us. My mother became a great cook with her fruit cake, coconut cake, and candies. Then, as we got older, we added music to the tradition with us singing Christmas carols around the piano. My father always read Luke chapter 2 and we prayed. Then, when my father died, Christmas changed again. New traditions created that lasted until my own children left home to start their own traditions. However, some traditions continue. One tradition that continues with most of our families that started many years ago is the reading of Luke chapter 2.
Christmas and the gospel go together for our family. It started with my father pulling out his old Bible years ago to read the real Christmas story. This is my Christmas memory. My father reading to us, then praying. It wasn't just on Christmas Eve that he read from the Bible, but every night for years until he found it easier to gather our large family at breakfast for the daily reading of the scripture and family prayer. Lessons about life and love came from his reading of the Bible to us. Memories I treasure.
Now, here we are celebrating Christmas in 2015 and Christmas memories are being made for my grandchildren with new traditions created by their parents. I hope the memories they cherish will not be the gifts but family coming together. Memories of good food, aunts and uncles, cousins, and the love shared. On each Christmas Eve, I hope they hear the story of baby Jesus. May their Christmas memories be about family and love.
"But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart." Luke 2:19
Those family traditions change over the years. Granny passed away to glory. Then, aunts and uncles made their own memories for their families. My father continued to cook barbeque and it got better every year. Christmas Eve continued to be special for us with some family joining us. My mother became a great cook with her fruit cake, coconut cake, and candies. Then, as we got older, we added music to the tradition with us singing Christmas carols around the piano. My father always read Luke chapter 2 and we prayed. Then, when my father died, Christmas changed again. New traditions created that lasted until my own children left home to start their own traditions. However, some traditions continue. One tradition that continues with most of our families that started many years ago is the reading of Luke chapter 2.
Christmas and the gospel go together for our family. It started with my father pulling out his old Bible years ago to read the real Christmas story. This is my Christmas memory. My father reading to us, then praying. It wasn't just on Christmas Eve that he read from the Bible, but every night for years until he found it easier to gather our large family at breakfast for the daily reading of the scripture and family prayer. Lessons about life and love came from his reading of the Bible to us. Memories I treasure.
Now, here we are celebrating Christmas in 2015 and Christmas memories are being made for my grandchildren with new traditions created by their parents. I hope the memories they cherish will not be the gifts but family coming together. Memories of good food, aunts and uncles, cousins, and the love shared. On each Christmas Eve, I hope they hear the story of baby Jesus. May their Christmas memories be about family and love.
"But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart." Luke 2:19
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