A Tradition I Maintain

I'm going to steal from the Nichol family for this post.

Jeremy's family has a lovely annual tradition which we have been (more or less) able to keep up with during the last five years in Australia.  During Advent, which begins the fourth Sunday before Christmas, the Nichols gather together to eat a yummy meal, maybe have a nip of eggnog, and light a candle on the Yule log.  Each family member has a reading that has been assigned to them, which they have been doing for years.  The different themes of the readings are: joy, love, sharing, wonder, and the Christmas reading.  All appropriate things to be thinking about during the Christmas season.  When the reading is finished, everyone toasts to the theme of the week and we all hold hands and pass a squeeze around.  When we lived in Ottawa, we would try to make it to the Nichol farm at least once or twice on a weekend to celebrate this tradition.

Jeremy brought his Yule log from Canada (which is...probably not allowed?) and we always put it out during the month of December.  Some years, we are able to coordinate better than others.  Jeremy's sister Hayley was living in British Columbia with her husband and two kids until recently, but now they are all back in Ontario.  This year that just passed, Jeremy and I stayed up and called Hayley, Lance and the kids and did Advent with them and then we would call his parents and repeat the whole thing!  (We didn't call his brother D'Arcy as we were fairly certain he would be quite unhappy at being woken up early on a Sunday morning!!)  The whole family was at Hayley's place at Christmas, so we were even able to do the Christmas reading with everyone present!  (It was slightly chaotic)

I love this tradition.  I remember the first time I experienced it - it makes you feel like part of the family.  The farm is so cozy and has a lot of good memories (except when you're totally alone and the power goes out and there aren't any flashlights except in the cellar where the murderer is clearly hiding!) and being able to take part in the tradition year after year kind of makes me feel like I'm back at the farm just for a moment.  During the time that I've been around, I've also seen friends warmly welcomed to take part in the tradition.  This year, our friend Lisa was here at Christmas and got to participate and there have been many others.  It really is just something that makes me feel warm and fuzzy :)