The Christmas Eve Event

Christmas for us has always been a time for gathering family and enjoying the time together. For the past 27 yrs, we've been getting family together to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. It'd be our parents, siblings, inlaws, neices and nephews- and close friends gathered together in one place once a year. The night was so anticipated and enjoyed on so many levels. The friends would flow through on their way to other events, but always seemed to linger at our house as part of our "family". We'd gather these people and share food, hugs and time together. We even leave our guests (those who didn't want to join us) and go off to the Christmas Eve service, come back and rejoin the festive crowd.

We've evolved into doing a gift swap and it really isn't about the gift as much as it's about the time together and the comedic attempts to come up with a gift to make everyone laugh. It's a pretty humorously creative crowd. I've tried to cancel it or even modify it- DENIED by the group. So, I guess it stays as is.

As the years have gone on, the nieces and nephews and our children now consider it a "must do" event. With everyone going in so many different directions and now living all over the U.S. and Europe, Christmas Eve is one of those events that they really try to be home for. It's still one of the only times we all just get together and share time, laughs, and love. I wouldn't trade it for any store bought gift that the Ad wizards are trying to sell me. My family is my greatest blessing and I love taking Christ's birthday as the day to celebrate these great gifts simultaneously.

Merry Christmas to you all- Nancy Hill