And It All Started With a Little Baby

It all started with a little baby wrapped in swaddling cloths. That little baby brought back such a rush of emotions and memories.   For some reason this year Christmas was really hard for me.    Christmas Eve was extremely busy for us.  Lil C made it a point to go visit his Great Grandma this year.  This was hard on all of us, because she’s not the same lady she was previous years.  After that stop, we went to visit my parents.  Typically we do that on Christmas Day, but since Lil C was going to be at his dads on Christmas day things changed.  Then we came back home to exchange gifts between ourselves.   Lil C and I then went to church – which was Standing room only when we got there.   And to end the night, we all went to the hubby’s moms house for our Traditional Christmas Eve night.

And then there was snow.  This was probably the worst snow that we have received so far this winter.  The hubby drove Lil C to his dads, and Peanut and I went home.  She was not wanting to sleep.  It was already past her bed time and she was all wired from the fun and excitement from the day.  So since she was all awake, I told her about how Christmas we celebrate Baby Jesus’ birthday. I had her help me place a little baby Jesus in the manger, between Mary and Joseph.  And that’s when all the emotion of the day hit me. I cried.  Peanut looked at me and asked what was wrong, and … I didn’t know where to start.   So I told her of the Christmases that I remember growing up.

This is a typical scene from our Christmas days.  Everyone is gathered in the kitchen at my Grandmothers house.  Mind you, she had a galley style kitchen.  But it was the place to be.  Especially when it came to carving the meat (Which ever it may have been that year)  We are a family of pickers – So everyone would pass by and pick off the pan before dinner was ready.

When it was time to eat, everyone would go to their respective spots.  When I was a lot younger, it was just the 3 of us cousins eating in the back bedroom at the kid table and the adults were at the kitchen table and then at the table in the living room.  As the family all grew, then we made it down in the basement as well.   Everyone was scattered all over the house.  There may have been a lot of us, but there was always room for just one more. 

After dinner was finished and dishes were done and put away, if you listen close enough you could hear the little hoofs of Santa’s Reindeer landing on the roof.  It never failed, Santa always forgot something in the bottom of his bag, and he knew we were all at Grandma’s house so he could make just one more stop. 

Before Santa would leave, we would all thank him for stopping. He would help us sing Happy Birthday to baby Jesus.  Grandma would have a small cake for his birthday.  And then we would say a prayer for safe travels back to the North Pole for Santa.

And off he would go, with a “Ho Ho Ho”.

And it all Started with a little baby… laying in a manger…wrapped in swaddling clothes.  HE reminded me that he is the reason for the season.