Christmas Traditions

   What are some of your favorite family Christmas Traditions? Is it decorating the tree? Is it taking everyone out to dinner? Is it driving around to see the Christmas lights? One of my favorite family traditions was taking everyone to Mountain River Ranch for their Christmas show. Because of the Covid Apocalypse the show was cancelled this year. Plus my good friends Mike and Julie Anglesey were not the ones putting on the show and that was one of the things I enjoyed the most. Each year they would tell the audience they have two safety precautions. The first was that no one in the audience could get on the table for their own safety. The second was everyone in the audience needed to keep their clothes on for the staff’s safety. One year after saying the second rule, Mike looked directly at me and said, “We call that the John Deere rule!” I immediately replied, “That was one year!” Mike responded with, “Yeah, it was one year and now we have a rule!”

   Last year I decided to start a new tradition of taking my family and Kristi’s family to dinner in a limo and then around to see the Christmas lights. When I tried to make reservations at Stockman’s restaurant, the person that answered the phone told me the only one that could make reservations was the manager and he wasn’t there. “Okay, how do I talk to the manager?” I asked. “Did you want me to see if he can call you back?” she asked. “Only if you’re interested in me spending my money there,” I heard the voice in my head say. So the reservations I made at Smokin Fins was for 6:00 so we would have plenty of time to go around and see Christmas lights afterwards.

   One of the absolute best things about driving around to see the lights was to watch Jayci and Justin. The big smiles on their faces and the laughter from everyone was so pleasing and heartwarming . Kristi and I both agree that we are blessed to have the great families we do and spending time with them is the best Christmas present we could ask for.

   This year we enjoyed a nice meal at Smokin Fins and drove around to see the Christmas lights. We drove past the Owens family “Christmas Every Day music and light show. We drove by slowly and turned around to drive by again. A gentleman drove up and offered to clear a space for us. He was the owner, and he was very nice. We thanked him for putting on this annual show and how we look forward to it every year. He told us if we wanted to call ahead, he would reserve a spot for the limo so we could watch. It was a wonderful night and definitely a wonderful new Christmas tradition.

   I hope you are all staying safe and healthy and that you have some wonderful family Christmas traditions you are going to be able to do. Thanks for reading.

Next week: Merry Christmas 2020

P.S. My Christmas present was time with my family. Any guesses what their Christmas present is? If you said World’s Best Limo Driver you are correct.