Advent Day 10 -- Christmas Traditions with Seeker Sandra Leesmith

Sandra Leesmith

Hello Seekerville,

What a blessing to be invited back to fellowship with you.  I understand we are sharing our Christmas traditions. How fun is that?  I am enjoying the traditions shared so far and look forward to the rest of the month. 

For years hubby and I spent Thanksgiving with his folks and Christmas with mine. Every year, we would drive to Lake Tahoe and spend the two weeks of Christmas break with my mom. After the 16 hour drive, we would arrive to the welcoming smells of pine trees outdoors and indoors, pot roast in the crock pot that she always had ready for us.  To this day, I can smell that pot roast and to this day, I still can’t make it like Mom did.  sigh. 

We stopped taking pictures because every year we looked the same and sometimes we were even in the same bathrobe and slippers. But Mom always had the tree up with her special ornaments and she would put up the nativity scene that I made for her in the seventies. 

Since my folks have passed to be with the Lord on His birthday, we still have some of the same  traditions. I inherited the nativity scene and put that up every year. 

I have many of the same ornaments on the tree. When Mom was with us, I always bought an ornament from where we were traveling. So I inherited those also. Now don’t laugh at our tree. It is on a table so that it is above tail height of our Labrador Retrievers we’ve had over the years. If you know labs, their tails can wipe off all the ornaments with one wag and our pups were happy. 

One of our other traditions is that with my family, we always made our gifts. This adorable mouse was made by my sister. So he goes up every year. 

I inherited the snowman that my sister made for my mom.  He goes up every year.  I usually put him on the couch, but this year he is sitting in a bookcase because we are pet sitting a spaniel who loves sitting on the couch.

For many years we were in our motorhome, so decorations were limited. (However, must admit a lot easier LOL)  I posted this years ago, but thought I’d remind you how much fun we had in RV resorts during Christmas. 

But now we have made some more life changes and are not traveling in our motorhome. We are enjoying our beautiful homes so can decorate and follow old traditions from the past. One of my traditions that I’ve followed no matter what lifestyle we were enjoying is to write a poem to include in our Christmas cards.  They are always pretty corny, but they tell our friends the highlights of the year.  You can get the idea from this year’s poem. 

On Christmas morning, we always read the Christmas story from the Bible and enjoy a cup of coffee and orange bread made from Grandma’s recipe. I shared that with you in one of my earlier posts, but will be happy to share it again. I used to make the orange bread to give my family for Christmas, but my darling nieces have taken up that tradition. (I’m so thankful)  To make up for my slack, I do give everyone a box of Sees candy.  

Recipe GRANDMA’S ORANGE BREAD

From Sandra Leesmith Serves    12

             Cooking time  1 hour Preheat oven to  350 degrees

Ingredients:

2 rinds of medium orange (chopped)    3 cups flour

2 cups water 3 tsp baking powder

½ cup sugar 1 tsp salt

1 tbsp Crisco or coconut oil 1 cup milk

1 cup sugar 1 egg beaten

Cook rind in water until tender (@ 10 min). Drain water, add ½ cup sugar until it melts.  Cool mixture.

Add 1 cup sugar to melted Crisco. Mix well. Add beaten egg. 

Then add cooled orange rind mix.

Sift dry ingredients and add alternately with milk to range mixture beating well after each addition.  Begin and end with flour mixture.

Pour in greased loaf pan. Sprinkle sugar on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes. Cool on rack ten minutes. Remove from pan and cool.

One of the things I do faithfully every day is list all the things I am thankful for. This pleases the Lord and it gets me in the right Christmas attitude because we do have so much to be thankful for.  

One thing I’m always thankful for is a good romance novel. Thank you all for writing such wonderful books for us to share.  

For a gift, I’m celebrating with a long time follower of Seekerville, Mark Abel. His first novel just came out and I’m giving away 2 ebook copies of Ephesus A Tale of Two Cities. 

And in honor of my Christmas tradition, I’m giving away a box of Sees Chocolate Mint Truffles  (My favorite Christmas sweet)  

Please indicate in your comment if you’re interested in your name going in the drawing for these gifts.  

Have a wonderful holiday season, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sandra Leesmith wrote many sweet romances designed to warm the heart and make you smile. Sandra loves to play pickleball, hike, read, and bicycle. A retired teacher and author, she lives in Arizona with her husband.

Find books by Sandra Leesmith in both Kindle and Print versions.

Several of Sandra’s books are also available in audio version.

You can contact Sandra at:

Website: sandraleesmith.com

Facebook: Sandra Wardman Smith

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