It's just not Christmas without Ralphie and the major award...

"You used up all the glue, ON PURPOSE!!"

My family loves this movie.  We watch it every year at Christmastime, and could probably quote the whole thing, verbatim.

I love all the traditions my family has.  My dad reading a chapter of A Christmas Carol every night, enacting the Nativity scene, tamales on Christmas Eve, all the parties we've had with friends and family, reading the Grinch, Christmas caroling, Secret Santa, trifle, pie, ham, decorating the tree, the lights, the cookies, the sheer anticipation.

But I'm especially glad that my family also makes sure that we all remember the reason for the season.  How beautiful is it that Heavenly Father loves us enough to give up that which was most precious to Him?  How wonderful is it that Christ feels such compassion for us that he was willing to sacrifice his own life, that we may be made whole?  How lucky and blessed are we?  I feel like this is part of why I love singing Christmas songs so much.  Because thinking of this just makes me want to sing for joy.  Joy.

Event though I'm not having Christmas with my family this year, and Dan's family probably has different tradtions, they all go back to the same thing.  We're all celebrating the birth of our Savior, however we choose to.  And that is so fantastic.