Christmas Eve

Here's another Christmas tradition I thought I would share.

When my mom was pregnant with the twins (my younger brother and sister), she was put on bedrest for the last three months, which was most of November, December and January. (The twins arrived in February.) And so you can picture it, I turned three that December, and my sister was five and a half.

I remember a few things about this time. I know I got up and dressed myself every morning (in clothes my mom picked out) and made my bed. I took my hairbow and brush to my mom in bed and then waited for my ride to come. It depended on the day, but I always went somewhere: Preschool, a play date, a home day care, etc. My mom's friends stepped up to make sure I made it to every birthday party and event I needed to be at. The same went for my sister who was in kindergarten.

When I got home in the afternoons, I would crawl into my mom's bed to play paper dolls or read books. She also kept cookies with her to bribe me to play with her upstairs. I don't have any negative memories from this time, and I think it made me a pretty independent kid. It also meant that when the twins were born, I was so excited to have my mom back to normal I didn't think to be jealous of the babies.

During this time, my mom's friends and our church also supported us with meals. My dad came home in time to feed us dinner every night, and we did pretty well with all the casseroles and chicken pot pies we received.

But for Christmas Eve, my dad wanted to make a meal for us. My dad is pretty capable in the kitchen, but at the time most of the things he knew to make were appetizers and "party food." So that's what he made. My sister and I helped him, and my mom was able to come to the table to eat dinner with us that night.

And so it became a tradition for us. My siblings and I all have specific things that we make with my dad pitching in. He does the grocery shopping and planning, and we pull off a pretty great meal every year.

I don't remember what we made the first year, but our menu usually consists of: lobster bisque, hallelujah ham rolls, shrimp remoulade, sausage swirls, Tex-Mex dip (my dish even though I don't eat it), spinach dip, baked brie, crab dip and usually a red meat of some kind. Yes, it is a ton of food, but I think we like it left over almost as much as on Christmas Eve.

I agreed to work at Thanksgiving and even Christmas Day sometimes just so I could be there to cook on Christmas Eve and eat this meal with my family because Christmas Eve is definitely "our holiday." We're changing it up this year, adding some people and shifting location, but we will still gather around the table as a family and remember how this all started.