Christmas in the heartland of the cowboy

I am in Wyoming for Christmas. It won't be a white Christmas this year, but it will be a Christmas surrounded by family, familiar music, laughter, and love.

A White Christmas in Casper, Wyoming for years past

In my house, we open presents from family on Christmas Eve and presents from Santa on Christmas morning. A generation ago, no one in my family lived in Wyoming. Now my grandma lives there, her 3 daughters, 5 out of 7 grandkids, and 2 of their spouses. For family gatherings, we are a crew of 15. Christmas Eve we get together in the afternoon for cookies, present exchanges, and just enough gluvine to make me slightly tipsy when we head to church for candlelight service. I adore that service, and I eagerly anticipate it every year. I like singing Silent Night in a church lit only by the flicker of candles. I like hearing the Christmas story. The service is what brings the magic into my Christmas and really puts me at peace.

After church my little family goes home and cozies in with hot chocolate to open presents from each other. My brother and I started wearing Santa hats for this at some point in our childhoods, and we still do this. I suppose much of what we do (we still wake up in the middle of the night to peek at presents) is out of nostalgia. We set cookies out for Santa on the same plate that we've used since I can remember, and we always remember only at the last minute that we need to unpack and hang our stockings.

The magic of Christmas lasted a long time for me. Since my brother is 6 years younger, I got to participate in making Christmas special for him even once I reached my teens. We wake up in the middle of the night to go look at presents, but now that we're older, we leave an "elf" present under the tree for my mom. The 3 of us pair up to get something special for the hardest working lady I know. It's fun knowing that she gets to have a surprise, too.

Christmas morning, once presents are opened, we have Gram Grapefruit. My grandma in South Carolina (dad's mom) sends us the most delicious grapefruits every year- Pittman and Davis. Mmmmm there is nothing like grapefruit on Christmas!

Many of our traditions carried over from my youth in Chicago and translated nicely into life in Wyoming. I can't wait to post pictures and share stories from this year. Hopefully everyone has a very happy Christmas and a wonderful new year. Love always.