LIFE'S BETTER IN THE MOUNTAINS

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas Eve

It's almost here! And how quickly it came this year. The traditional Christmas Eve in our family hasn't changed in years. We snack all day long and have a Christmas Eve buffet in the evening. We always have ham, shrimp, beef sticks and assorted cheeses, veggies, and spreads. Everyone fills his or her plate and we sit watching two movies. One is "A Christmas Carol" with George C. Scott as Scrooge. This movie has the best Tiny Tim of any of the versions of this story. After that, we watch the Allistair Sims old version of the same movie.

When the movies are over, we sit around drinking wine (or whatever), listen to Christmas carols and look at the tree and the fire, usually remembering Christmases past. Then we head off to bed and wait for Santa.

We have a lot of Santas decorating our house at Christmas. This one is by far my favorite. This carved wooden Santa stands about four feet tall. The detail is wonderful with his lovely robe and his hands full of toys.


Note the wonderful detail of his facial features:
As with every decoration we have, this one also has a background story. My husband purchased him in Sarasota, Florida when he was attending a meeting there. He had him shipped to his office so that I would be surprised. Santa arrived in a package made from taping two boxes together. My husband removed the tape and pulled off the top box. To his surprise, hundreds of styrofoam peanuts came pouring out. He was wearing a wool suit and the peanuts clung to his body and fell all over the carpet. He called his administrative assistant for help and when she quit laughing, she helped him gather all the peanuts. It must have been quite a sight, and his assistant laughed about it for years to come.
I hope that you enjoy your own Christmas Eve traditions tonight. And I hope all is calm and bright at your house. Oh, and I hope Santa loosely defines naughty.
GOD BLESS US, EVERY ONE

12 comments:

George said...

It sounds as if you have a wonderful Christmas Eve tradition -- enjoy it again this year!
The Santa is beautiful and I'm still grinning at the story of your husband and the peanuts (I hate those things!).
Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Cicero Sings said...

A wonderful Santa!

Tonight we go to our sister-in-laws to sing carols and to eat! I made a pan of mac and cheese, she will make chili and others will bring snackies. Oh, I'll bring some sweets too. D and his brother play guitars, leading us in the carols. They were practicing last night so I get serendaded twice from the deal!

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Oh Carolyn... He's a gorgeous Santa. I LOVE that face... This may be one of the best Santa's I've seen.

Cute story about those darn peanuts!!!! Isn't it great to have 'stories' to tell about our lives!

Sounds like I need to stop by for a SNACK tonight!!!!!

George and I open ONE gift at midnight --and share an eggnog.. Everything else waits 'til Christmas morning.

Merry Christmas to you and your Sweetie.
Blessings,
Betsy

Unknown said...

Ah Carolyn your Christmas eve sounds like ours. Love the Santa! Hey he will go just fine with my snowmen.
Merry Christmas, Joy and Peace.

Dog_geek said...

Ha ha! Love the story about the styrofoam peanuts - too funny!

Dawn Fine said...

love the santa...and your traditions...Have you seen A Christmas Story?
Merry Christmas to YOU

Kim said...

It sounds like a lovely Christmas!! Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Cedar ... said...

What a wonderful Santa! All of my kids and grandkids were here last night (Christmas Eve) and I will go to visit them this afternoon. Then it is relax and enjoy the next week of "holiday after glow"....

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Carolyn: That just adds to the beauty of the peice. That expression is sooooo real.

Mary said...

My favorite "A Christmas Carol" is the old one with Allistair Sims but I didn't see it this year!

That tall Santa is fantastic.

Your Christmas Eve tradition sounds similar to the one we have here. I think Eve is the best day of the holiday.

Merry Christmas, Carolyn! Enjoy your family.

Mary

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas to you.

Kerri Farley said...

This Santa is stunning! And I LOVED your story! What a picture that would have made!!

A Belated Merry Christmas to you!!