This week i have been thinking about when i was a child at christmas time. This being the first year without my grandma at christmas has got me reflecting on the past. Holiday traditions that i seemed to love as a child, disliked as a teenager, forgotten about though my wild 20's and now wishing that i had back in my 30's when nothing will ever be like it was before.

Christmas Eve was all about going to my grandma's house for the evening. The whole family would be there. Dinner, and the exciting time of gift openings, and then the long wait for grandma to open all her gifts as the night is ending. 10 grandchildren, all under the age of 11, tired, full and ready to go home and get sleep for the next day..christmas. It was the one time of the year that all us cousins would get together under one roof and have a good time. Of course as we all got older, we went our seperate ways, but grandma still held christmas eve at her house, and all were welcomed if we could make it. Of course as we got older, fewer grandkids showed up. All with our own lives to contend with. Shame that it took grandma's death last new years to get us all back together again under one roof, a time period of about 15 years, if not more.

Christmas' past...lots of great memories.