….my family gave to me, a joyous time! Okay, I’ll admit that that is a weak paraphrase of the traditional Christmas song title. That song, however, is about Twelvetide, a festive Christian celebration of the Nativity of Jesus. I’m strictly speaking of the two specific days my family celebrates the secular side of the season: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, itself.

Christmas Eve is the last day of Advent, followed by Christmas Day, the first of the twelve days of Twelvetide. But as a family, during my lifetime, we’ve always got together on Christmas Eve to feast and exchange presents with immediate members of the clan. Back in the day, that included all grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins, along with all parents and kids. But time does march onward and things do change. All grandparents and parents are now gone, as well as aunts and uncles, and now my brother and I realize the we’re the old folks, carrying on the tradition.

So, it’s now a much smaller and subdued evening compared to what it once was. We always have it at my brother’s and it’s simply a two-family gathering with all our kids and his grandkids; I’m yet to be a grandpa. Still, it remains a joyous occasion with the massive spread of food and desserts prepared by the master culinary expertise of my sister-in-law followed by watching the exchanging of gifts, with a special eye focused on the little kid’s excitement.

But prior to the feasting and gift giving, about an hour was spent in a 5-guitar concert, accompanied by one violin. In looking back on it, we determined that it was me who began the guitar tradition in my family when I got my first one the Christmas I was 13-years old. And now my brother as well as his son and two of his granddaughters all play, along with one granddaughter violinist. Remove me and my brother from the equation, and all those kids could get a recording contract, for me and my brother reached the limits of our guitar capabilities long ago. We all have a lot of fun, though.

Then the following morning, the fun begins again. First thing is coffee, along with a special French toast breakfast Lynndee prepared using the recipe from the Joanna Gaines Magnolia Table cookbook I got her for her birthday. That was money well-spent for that book for Lynndee has fed me well from those pages. And then came the madness of ripping the paper and ribbons off the gifts we shared

I’ll certainly not go into all the specifics of the gifts shared, but I do have to tell of one special thing Lynndee did for me. Many times here I’ve shared with you readers my love of books and where that love came from. Lynndee, my sweet wifey, has certainly learned of my book passion and has constantly and lovingly fed it. And she went above and beyond the call of duty this Christmas. She paid attention to my grousing and complaining about my local library no longer having Ian Fleming’s James Bond books gracing their shelves. I’d had a desire to reread them after all these years, so I had begun haunting Amazon and buying one, every now and then. But I’d only acquired half of ‘em, seven volumes.

Well Merry Christmas to me! On opening three of my gift boxes, I found the remaining seven missing volumes from my collection. A total wow moment. Thanks for such a special and thoughtful gift. You truly are my special  Anghel.

The rest of the day was spent just being lazy and being glued to the boob tube, following up on what I shared here last week, telling of my favorite Christmas movies. So we watched A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Story and Scrooged, as well as a couple of those Hallmark Channel Christmas movies that Lynndee loves so much. I also enjoyed watching some oldie moldy TV comedy series Christmas shows, hilarious episodes of Murphy Brown and Benson.

But that brings an end to this part of the holiday season. Yet, we still have New Year’s Eve partying to plan, so that gives us a week to recuperate and get ready for the next blast. So, see y’all next year!