Christmas was a little different for us this year as all of our children weren't with us. Dayna and Jack have been married for 3 years and decided that it was time for them to start some of their own family traditions and spend the holidays together. I thought it was really sweet. They spent Christmas Eve watching a favorite Christmas movie of theirs and eating yummy food. And then opened Christmas presents together early Christmas morning. We missed them, but understood their decision to just be together. Deron and I never did go from house to house during the holidays. From the beginning of our married life together, we started our own Christmas family traditions and have done it that way since.
Todd and Dana wanted to start their own family traditions together also. They had a nice dinner together on Christmas Eve and then after opening their presents together at their house on Christmas morning, they went to Dana's parents for a
little while. Then they came over to our house to open the gifts that we gave them and spent a little while here that evening. Then afterwards we all headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Wilkerson where they always have a big dinner at their place on Christmas night. We eat lots of yummy food and play games, usually scum, until late into the night.
We missed having all of our children with us for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas morning festivities but we realize that they have to grow up and leave the nest, making their own lives and traditions together. Its part of growing up. Its fun to see what they do for the holidays and how they decide to spend them. It nice to see that they have carried on some of the traditions that they had as children and have also been able to implement ones from their spouses side of the family too. Its exciting to see them grow up and do fun things as couples and grow closer as their own individual families. As each child leaves the nest our holidays change just a little bit, but we still enjoy doing the same family traditions that we've done for 22 years and look forward to many more years of Christmas together. Christmas is my favorite time of year and as we grow older and become empty nesters we hope to be able to go and visit our children in their homes for Christmas, enjoying the traditions that they have carried out in their families. Christmas really is the best time of the year!
feel very lucky. The kids love getting together as much as the adults do. Grandma and Aunt Teresa and Aunt Maryanne had made some really cute gingerbread houses out of graham crackers for the kids to frost and decorate with a million different kinds of candy. They used cotton candy to make it look like it had snowed -I hadn't ever seen that before and it was really cool, very messy, but so cool. They played tag, had leg wrestles, played hid-n-seek and just plain wore themselves clear out. All of my nieces and nephews were ther
e. I have so much fun with them! I have 4 nephews and 7 nieces and they are so much fun to play with, talk to and spend time with. Each one of them have such fun personalities. You just gotta love them! This picture of my nephew Kayden is one of the my very fav
orite pictures of him. He has such a love for life and is such a cute boy...so much fun! Cameron even got into the gingerbread houses! Honestly, I thought about going over and doing o
ne myself. They are so much fun to put together. 
This year was our first "Wilkerson Family Christmas Party". We decided that with our kids growing up and some of them getting married, that it was time we started a new tradition. 
r old traditions, but with the times changing and our family going in different directions it was time to get a few new ones going. Dana planned the games. They were so much fun. Everyone got involved and had an awesome time. It certainly wasn't one of those parties that everyone sat around and waited for something to happen. 
MT and so he ran down there to check Cameron out and see what had happened. Whenever its a neck injury they don't mess around with it. It becomes very serious, very quick. The boy that Cameron was wrestling had done an illegal move on Cameron's neck. He said that he heard a crackle and a snap and then had intense pain. (I was sure it was broke) I was up in the crowd deciding then and there that this was the LAST wrestling experience that he was going to have and that he was done forever, no matter what!!!! (Mom's do that you know) Deron, the coaches and a few others, were down on the mat accessing his injuries and all I could do was watch. It was pretty intense and scary for a bit. But about the time I was ready to go down and let that boy have it, Cameron said that he would be okay and was going to finish his match (Not what I would have chosen for him, but hey, I'm just the mom). He got up and proceeded to finish his match. I could tell that he was hurting but I admired his strength and courage to go on. Luckily it wasn't anything serious an
d he iced it good and it was just sore for a few days, but none the less wrestling scares me. Cameron loves it (how could you love being beat up and twisted into a pretzel...boys are weird) and assures me that with any sport there is a chance for injuries. Its been fun seeing him excel at something that he loves. I just have to think....it's not going to be too many more years and we will be empty nester's and then we will really miss this kind of stuff. 
t up and make it last all year long. I went out to the city to get my Christmas shopping done over the weekend. It was crazy busy, but as I was leaving the city and all its rush, I saw the Christmas lights twinkling on the trees of yards and office buildings and it took me back to my life when all my kids were young. We would take an evening in December and drive around town or the city (wherever it was that we lived at the time) and look at all the Christmas lights that others had so carefully put up in their yards, on their homes and around the trees. Some were elaborate, some very simple, but it was so fun to hear the kids squeal from the back seat when they saw some they liked. "Mom, look over there, did you see that one?" and so on and so on. Those were great years and are wonderful memories. 
