Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00358

On our Christmas Eve we have the family over to our house. Allison makes a chicken stew for everyone and my Mom and Dad, Tara and Erik come over to enjoy a fun night. We had a really nice time, too. Before we have our dinner we go to the 4:30 Mass at our Church. It was a pretty subdued Mass and even the Nativity scene was subdued. We learned later on that it was on purpose and it only focused on the Holy Family. The reason for that was that this is a year ahead for everyone to take time to focus on their own families. That means taking the time to be with each other on the day to day. Make time for meals and more. There is a commercial out there that says that families today get 37 minutes of focused time together each day. That is way to little.

I know that is not the case in our house. We are very much together and doing things together. We try very hard to make meals a focus of time to talk and learn about everyone’s day. It is a little thing but it is what we can focus on.

Our night was a great one, too. It was so nice to have the whole family there with their Mem and Grandfather and Auntie Tara and Uncle Erik. They even had Lexi with them and the kids were delighted by that. The cats, not so much. But they hide upstairs when anyone comes over anyway.