Tradition. . .

One of our family’s most favorite Christmas traditions is playing broomball with a few other families on Christmas Eve night.  We have done this for years.  But times are changing

One family didn’t come. *sniff sniff*

While we had a few welcomed and appreciated guests, our numbers are down. . . and the old people are getting older. . . and slower .  . and can’t last as long as they used to.

We started earlier than we used to. .. so we could get to bed earlier.  We even planned our big meal accordingly so it wouldn’t slow us down.  This is serious business!

So.Much.Fun!

Trimming the Tree . . . finally!

With everyone home, the time had come.  Even though I think the tree is beautiful enough with just the lights, protocol includes decorations.  We have those!

Back in the day. . . when the kids were little and there were fights over who got to hang which ornament, I used to divvy them up.  But those days are gone. .. they managed to restrain themselves!

and we enjoyed our new role as onlookers.


By the end, they resorted to tossing ornaments onto the tree.  Oh how I would have had a fit in earlier years.  I didn’t mind at all.  I didn’t have to do the decorating!

It’s All About Priorities

I guess we are a bit different than most (not news to anyone that knows us.)
It’s Christmas time and what do you think of?
We think of . . . . .BROOMBALL!  We have played most every Christmas Eve for a bunch of years with a group of friends.  When we first started the kids were younger and so were we.  We had to take it easy on them and now we HOPE they take it easy on us.
Pregame:

I think we were the MOST excited because we got there first!

We didn’t last as long as we hoped but we sure had fun.  We had a few new additions (that had nothing better to do on Christmas Eve).

We can’t wait until the next game and wonder who won’t be able to join us and what other new additions we might have!

Christmas Eve

What do YOU do on Christmas Eve?

Everyone seems to have different traditions and we are no different, though our traditions have changed over the years.
We love to have our feast on Christmas Eve and we mostly stick to that.
Another tradition is to watch A Muppet Christmas Carol.

We love the music and the story. We giggle the whole way through it. But we don't always do that. And that is true for this year too.
Another tradition (but it hasn't always been this way) is to prepare our brooms

and head down to the church to meet up with some other families to play broomball. And that is exactly what we did this year.

Allie was excited about the prospect and was patiently waiting in the car for the others to show up.

We got tired of waiting and went in to warm up. Since ice hockey is not happening for Paul right now, this is the best substitute for him.

As you can see, the brooms vary, but the enthusiasm does not!

We opted to divide the teams by over 40 and under 40. The camera woman for this shot was definitely under 40 so the teams were a bit lopsided. (5 vs 6 1/2 which included one pregnant-but-in-shape woman) The older crowd needed rest breaks! We all had fun and it was fairly even.
Some people were not tired by the end so a basketball game broke out.

We went home exhausted and had a good sleep on Christmas Eve night. We hope you were able to enjoy your traditions too.