Merry Christmas Eve!

Christmas journal page from Olivia, done in oil pastels

Merry Christmas Eve to you! We've been enjoying the day making brownies for Santa and a birthday cake for Jesus.

Growing up, I spent Christmas Eve at my Nana's with my mom and my cousins.  Nana always made rich, creamy Oyster Stew like no one else could. We lost that Christmas Eve tradition when I lost my mom in 1999 and then my Nana shortly afterward, but thanks to Benny, I'm looking forward to having Nana's Oyster Stew tonight.  We could never get the recipe because Nana never wrote it down, but Benny watched her make it for several years and finally got it right last year.

I wish you the warmest of holiday greetings in whatever way you choose to celebrate. My hope is that at this time of year, if at no other, we can all put our differences aside and share a time of peace, joy and forgiveness.  I've always felt that Dr. Suess said it best ...

"And the Grinch with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came with ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags.  And he puzzled and puzzled until his puzzler was sore.  Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from store? What if Christmas, he thought, means a whole lot more?"

Merry Christmas to you and yours. May God bless you with the richest of blessings that can't be bought at the store.