B-A-Light Productions

I remember as a kid, and even after I married Eric, my family had a great Christmas Eve tradition.  We would always go over to my Grandparents house and spend time visiting with one another and laughing about this or that.  We would eat the goodies that my mom and her sisters had baked that week, and Italian sausage with pepper and onions.  Occasionally, my Grandfather would try to sing Christmas Carols in his strained voice, and of course we would humor him and join in.  Those where some good times.  So much has changed since then.  Eric and I moved away, and it got to where we did not come home for Christmas anymore and I miss that Tradition.  I have tried many times to recreate it but with little or no success.

Now, after the loss of my Daughter, my Grandfather, my Dad, and now Eric’s Dad, it has become even harder to bring back the joy and festivity of the Christmas season and our traditions.  My mom called me yesterday.  She explained that this year we would not be having the Italian Sausages like we normally do…just appetizers…a piece of me wanted to say “What?  But it’s Tradition!!”

God spoke to me about that this morning…”When life changes, you have to change with it.”  The fact of the matter is, if we had the same old tradition this year, it would’ve reminded us of old times and probably would have brought on more sadness than we already feel this time of year.  I feel if you move on and do something different it helps.  And with that thought, I have decided to make new traditions this year.  We will go to my Mom’s on Christmas Eve, but that will not be the center of our evening.  Eric and I will be going to a candle light service at our church that night.  We are also going to carry on a tradition we began last year.  We are going to put the Birth of Christ first on Christmas Day and attend a midnight mass.  Even though we are not Catholic…we both enjoyed that last year. 

So the thought of the day, is when circumstances change and things just aren’t the same, try something new.  Break old traditions and start new ones.  Yeah it may be difficult, but sometimes the difficult thing brings about the joy, hope and healing that we are sometimes missing.