Peace & Goodwill

Well, Christmas Eve has finally arrived. Peace and goodwill is evident amongst the farm creatures:

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Below......please meet Serena, who has graciously agreed to be spokescow for our dairy herd and extend the best of Christmas Eve wishes to you blog readers! Don't worry, Serena is not in jail; she simply is standing in a corner stanchion in the barn, where she waits to be milked. Her message to you is: "Please feel free to indulge in lots of eggnog, cheese, hot cocoa, and other dairy-related treats on The Night Before Christmas......and all through the holiday season!"

Unfortunately, Serena is none too happy to be seen online wearing an ill-fitting Santa hat. Actually, I believe she may be attempting to hide her big head in shame, despite my assurances to her that you blog readers are not bovine fashion critics. Cows---being typical females---can be inwardly quite vain, and their MOOds may plummet if they sense that they don't look as good as they'd like. Despite her poutiness, Serena---along with all the cows---does indeed wish you a very Happy Christmas Eve!
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Tonight, we---the humans of the farm---will attend church and then come home to open Christmas gifts. That is the tradition from Husband's side of the family. The family I came from always opened presents on Christmas morning. Lately, I've been researching Christmas traditions and have learned that it is a German custom to open gifts on Christmas Eve, after church, and then after a large array of food has been set out and partaken of. Yup, that describes our Christmas Eve evening activities each year.
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So what do we do about Santa Claus?..... you may ask. Well......ahem......our house is early on his delivery route; he stops in while we're at church on Christmas Eve! In years past, when the kids were little, I would have all the wrapped gifts hidden away and would quickly put them under the tree right before we all left to go to the evening's church service. The kids were already in the car, and paid no mind (supposedly) to the fact that Mom was a bit slow in making her way to the car. That had been the tradition in Husband's family when he was growing up, too.......his Mom would suddenly remember that she had to run back into the house to check on something, and then she would set out the gifts. But, Husband says, "Duh......like we didn't figure it out eventually!"
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Enjoy YOUR Christmas Eve traditions! Peace and Goodwill to you!
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[The weather cooperated last evening so that my four friends were able to make it here for our annual get-together. One of them lives in Kentucky and she is VERY hesitant to drive on snowy roads (I don't blame her!) when she's visiting Iowa, so she hitched a ride from Cedar Falls with one of the other guests. What an enjoyable time we had---dredging up old memories and laughing our fool heads off. We've known each other since kindergarten, making for an abundance of shared recollections. "Oh, remember when......", is heard repeatedly when we're together.]

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