Merry Christmas

Sorry for the delay between blogs, but there are a couple pretty good reasons for it.
1) Our laptop is being sent off for repairs, so I'm on the ole desktop, which hasn't seen any action in about 14 months.
2) We've had a major change in our lives since my last post, as Missy's grandpa moved in with us. He's 90 and not in great health, but this is a great opportunity for Missy to use her nursing skills and for both of us to show the love of Christ and be servants.
There have been some challenges but I definitely feel this is the right thing for us to do.

Usually I like to blog about a stupid story or something funny, and that kind of silliness will return to the Lucky Life blog within days. But this time I wanted to write about what Christmas was like for me growing up.
Unlike most families, who allow one or multiple present openings on Christmas Eve, we had a strict not-until-Christmas policy. Unfortunately, Christmas at the Franklin household usually began before dawn.
My little sister Allison or my little brother Andrew would wake up somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 a.m. One would wake the other up, and they would unintentionally wake me up with their excitement.
They would then argue about whether it was late enough to go wake up Mom and Dad to begin the festivities. No later than 5:30 a.m., they would blitz through Mom and Dad's doors to announce that it was Christmas. I came in behind them, but I had to be there because we weren't allowed to start Christmas until the whole family was there. (By the way, this is not just an early childhood tradition -- we started Christmas this early all the way up until my dad passed away when I was 25).
Mom was pretty eager to get started, but Dad liked to get some play out of it. He would go through some elaborate stretching exercises before getting out of bed, and then he always said he had to shave and brush his teeth before we could start.
The whole family would go downstairs together, and mom would make some delicious cherry bars. Christmas was the only day all year that we would eat cherry bars.
Our other tradition was the reading of the Christmas story from Luke Chapter 2. We three kids memorized it -- my part was the first 7 verses. We'd recite the Christmas story, have a family prayer, and then open our presents. Present opening took a long time because we all had to take turns opening one thing at a time.
I have nothing but fond memories of my childhood Christmases. Now I'm married into a new family, and we've combined some of our traditions. Missy's family likes to sleep later, which is more my style anyway, and I got to enjoy her great cooking.
The Franklin clan is now all over the world. My mom and my sister live in different parts of Asia, but this year they got to meet in Thailand for Christmas. My brother still lives in the Oklahoma City area so we'll get to see him.
I'd love to hear some more unique Christmas traditions. Just post them in the comments thread below.
Merry Christmas everyone!