Christmas Memories

I tried to create my own traditions for the kids and I, when they were with me at home, things I never did when I was a kid.  Some of them may already be commonplace for most people, but they were new to me, and something I always wanted as a kid.  I think they might call it "normal"  in some households, but all new to me.  Along with the seasonal Christmas crafts, I cajoled them into singing traditional and sometimes whimsical and highly animated carols with me.  I tried to share my love of bird watching with them - oh how I love to watch the cardinals, the blue jays and the tufted titmouse in the snow, along with the occasional redheaded woodpecker at the suet feeder.  We baked cookies, or rather, I baked and they ate, sometimes we had a cookie decorating party.  We stuffed cloves into oranges and made scented pomanders.  The kids went sled riding, sometimes ice skating.  We drank special hot cocoas with whipped cream and crushed peppermint or chocolate shavings on top - we all love Abuelita's too, and the final garnishment was a miniature candy cane of course.  We had a list of all of the traditional Christmas movies to watch:  A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Home Alone, Jingle All the Way, A Christmas Carol, the traditional and Scrooged with Bill Murray, Rudolph, Frosty, The Grinch, Elf, Roby the Reindeer became quite popular with the kids, I loved A Child's Christmas in Wales, Winter in the Willows, taken from Wind in the Willows and of thanks to my son's love of Die Hard and Bruce Willis, we had to deem ALL of the Die Hard movies, Christmas movies, because most all of them had a Christmas theme or setting! When Harry Met Sally, Moonstruck and Sleepless in Seattle were always thrown in for good measure. Oh my, with so many movies, it's a wonder we had TIME for anything else! 
We always tried to take in a play put on by the locals, and/or a production of The Nutcracker.  There's a brilliant performance every year at the Akron Civic Theatre, although we've seen it in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the Russian Dancers and in Denver, Colorado too.
There was all of the Christmas music you could fathom traditional, rock, jazz, country and classical.  We got such a kick out of Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer, and Merry Christmas From the Family by the Dixie Chicks.  There was a lot of merriment love and laughter.  And I think one of my favorite things to do was read, when they would allow it:  A Christmas Memory, by Truman Capote - god I love that story,  And also Dulce Domum, a most heartwarming and Christmassy chapter from Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows.  I loved the years I got them to sing in the church choir, but I never pressed that on them, I gave them what  spiritual foundation I could, and let them decide for themselves about life's miracles.  But I always tried to make Christmas about so much more than gifts, and it always was. And IS.