Christmas memories

The Christmas season is all about remembering.

Maybe it's because as young kids, there are many family traditions that are instilled in us that we repeat year after year. Or maybe it's because we "remember" the birth of Jesus, simply based on traditions of setting aside the day to remember and reflect on his birth.

As a mom of young kids, I am faced with the challenge of creating our own traditions for our family. It was important to get a Christmas tree and decorate the inside of our house. And to watch many favorite Christmas movies like Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman, and Small One. And to bake and decorate sugar cookies.

Of course, we were already faced with questions from Adele like "can we put up Christmas lights outside??" (Note to self: begin that tradition next year.) Or "why don't we have stockings hung by our fireplace?" (Because Mommy didn't finish sewing them this year...another important tradition that will be necessary next year.)

Every year as the Christmas season rolls around, and lights pop up on houses around the neighborhood, and the house is filled with smells of sugar cookies and a mix of cinnamon and cloves, and we fill our calendar with fun Christmas activities...I am flooded with memories of my own childhood and the traditions I grew up with.

I love this time of year.

It is in the midst of those memories that fill my mind, that I am also overwhelmed by emotions of love and gratitude and general joy and happiness.

This year, however, rather than simply reminiscing my childhood memories of Christmas, I have thought often of our years spent in Costa Rica during the Christmas season.

One year in Costa Rica, David and I were sitting around a campfire with some of our neighbors in the valley singing songs, and it was then that I was introduced to the song Canción para la Navidad by José Luis Perales. It is a beautiful song, and one that is now a permanent part of my Christmas playlist each year.

This year as the song popped up on my ipod, I found myself replaying it many times and each time my eyes filled with a few tears as I remembered fondly our Christmas seasons in Costa Rica.

Naturally, traditions are different in Costa Rica. Even the manger scene is different - very rarely did we see what we would consider typical manger scenes with wise men, shepherds, sheep, Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus. Most manger scenes we saw included many, many other animals like dolphins and whales, pigs, Mickey and Minnie Mouse figurines, etc.

Leading up to the actual Christmas Day, many Costa Rican families spent hours preparing tamales together. And there were posadas, where many gathered together to do some scripture reading and sing Christmas songs.

Christmas Day was also the only day of the year where even the Savegre Hotel shut down in the valley, so that the entire family could gather together and share a meal and a time for exchanging presents.

But one of the best memories I have is simply the changing of the seasons.

There was no dreaming of a white Christmas. Rather, the Christmas season marked the end of the long rainy season, and as the much-anticipated summer approached, December was known for being less rainy and more of a warm-windy feel. It was called the "Christmas winds."

And I am thankful that Christmas is a time for remembering - and that a simple song popping up on my ipod can transport me back to that time that was so different than the traditions I grew up with.

But were just as special.