Our Christmas Greetings to You!

Well, the Nebraska Rosenlunds have had another wonderful Christmas. In many ways, it was the best ever. While we didn't travel anywhere, we had a great time just hanging around the house for some well-deserved rest. One of the things we love most about Christmas is our little Christmas traditions that have sort of developed over the years.

Hark the Herald Angels
This year, we held our second annual "Rosenlund Caroling Tour" as we visited our neighbors, sang Christmas carols and delivered little plates of goodies. It is not something I am prone to participate in, but we have had a great time and many of the neighbors have commented later on that they really appreciated it. Unfortunately, the week leading up to Christmas was extremely cold, with temps around zero F and wind chills as low as 30 below zero. On our caroling night, temps were more like 12 degrees and zero with the wind chill. By the end, the little ones were doing more crying than singing. Sounds fun, right? Well, at the end, we all decided it was still worth it and that finding our gloves beforehand will make the night even better.

Our first big Christmas tradition at the Rosenlund home begins on Christmas Eve for our "Mary and Joseph" dinner. We typically have homemade bread, dried fruit, olives, jerky or summer sausage, cheese, and we eat on the front room floor. It is our attempt at remembering the type of dinner that Mary and Joseph had the night before Jesus was born. When we moved to Sterling, and had our fireplace, we included a firelight ambiance to the scene. It is generally the only time we have ever used the fireplace all year.

Christmas Morning
Somehow, we have convinced the children that Christmas morning begins at a respectable 7am. The kids, excited for the morning to begin, typically occupy themselves until about 7am when they wake Becky and I. Then, I go down and set up the video camera to preserve their initial reactions to the new Santa Claus gifts.

After Santa's gifts, Becky puts our second Christmas tradition into action, our annual morning breakfast: A cinnamon roll tree. Its a large cinnamon roll treat rolled out to the size of a coookie sheet, folded to a point at the top. Then, a series of cuts are made to create branches coming out from the center. The branches are twisted into delicious cinnamon sticks. We bake it first thing in the morning, ice it, and add red & green sprinkles. Eaten hot with milk, it is the best end to Christmas morning.

Lately, we have actually been making two trees. The first, we eat ourselves, the second we take down to the dispatchers on duty at the 911 center. This year, Meile, Topher and Jared accompanied me and sang a few carols to them as well. It is our little way of thanking the dispatchers who are spending Christmas morning away from their families.

At dinner time, Becky had a turkey cooking and we had the same thought, "Do we bring out the fancy place-settings, or go easy?" Fortunately, we overcame our tendency for simple and easy decided to bring out all the trimmings. It involves much more work, but as the table came together, we were glad we did.

Take a Ride on Reading Railroad
As Christmas came to a close, Becky and the kids opened up the old school Monopoly game they received and the five of us gathered around the table. Three hours later, we set a midnight time limit. I am pleased to say that following a count of all cash and properties, I won. The secret, get the railroads at any cost.

Our best wishes to all of you. Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!