Sharing the joy of the season

We have several traditions for the holidays. Most families do. We read a different story or scripture each night to count down. We bake loads of cookies to give away. The kids act surprised every year when they open their one present of pjs on Christmas Eve. We drive around to look at Christmas lights. You know the drill. The fact that these traditions aren't unique or terribly creative doesn't seem to matter to my family, and I'm glad. We do have a couple of traditions I think are unique to us though. Christmas Eve milkshakes and "The Nativity".

Christmas Eve milkshakes are just that. Milkshakes. What makes them special? Well, they are just vanilla milkshakes in tall clear glasses, with grenadine swirled through so they look like candy canes. Festive and yummy! An easier sell on a December night when you grow up in California. I suggested we make the switch to "Christmas Eve steamers", but was labeled a heretic and quickly shot down. So the milkshakes will remain.

Our other tradition, "The Nativity" is a fav too. Each year around Thanksgiving I ask my kids to start praying for our "nativity" family. Someone who may not be obvious, but could use a little extra Christmas Cheer. Once we decide on a family we choose a nativity. It has to be beautiful and it has to have separate pieces. We wrap them individually, attach a significant scripture and they we sneak up on the house and make the drop. We always do it anonymously, or at least we try. The Beckstrands aren't known for blending in very well or for being quiet, so who knows of we have ever actually pulled it off. The hope is that the chosen family will know they are thought of and loved, just as we have been so many times over.

It has continued to be an anticipated part of our holiday celebrations. It has been touching, like the year the family bore their testimony about how much it meant to them in church, not knowing we were there. It has also been a fiasco, like the year we decided to do three families.

I tend to think too large sometimes. Several years ago I figured a good idea is always better bigger, right, well not always. We chose three families. We bought three nativities. We wrapped the individual pieces to each of the nativities. Then we set off on our adventure. I was either on bed rest or had a new baby, so it wasn't until after Christmas that I realized we never labeled or kept tract of what pieces were going to which family when! That's right, my kids just randomly grabbed a nativity piece each night and dropped a present at each of the three houses. Somewhere in our old neighborhood are three different families with mismatched nativities some well meaning but completely inept neighbors left for them.

As with most service opportunities I'm sure we get more out of this then the families we give the nativities too. We have a new tradition now too. Each year the kids joke about the upcoming Ensign article, from some future church leader, whose family was given a nativity with no wise men, two baby Jesus', and three Mary's.

And I always thought we weren't the kind of family they write about in the Ensign.