A nostalgic weekend

Martha and Mama making goodies for Christmas Eve.

It's been a nostalgic weekend for me leading up to Christmas. It's not unusual for Christmas to provoke such sentimental thoughts.

As Martha and Mama were out shopping for ingredients to make all kinds of goodies for our annual Tuck-Reid Christmas Eve gathering, I started looking at a cookbook Mama made for us kids. It's filled with all kinds of delicious recipes we all enjoyed while growing up.

Then there's the Christmas section. She made that section like a scrapbook with photos. There were photos of my Dad and all of us when we were much younger, even one from 1979 that included my fat cat named Tippy. She weighed 17 pounds, and was the Tuck house cat for well over a decade.

As I read the different things Mama wrote, remembered all of those tasty dishes, and looked at photos, tears filled my eyes. Those were really good days filled with so many wonderful memories. My Dad went to be with Jesus in 1997, so we haven't celebrated Christmas together in 21 years. Oh, how I still miss him.

Mama is 83, so we are enjoying her. As healthy as she is she may live to be 103, but we should never take our loved ones or such moments for granted. Martha and I have enjoyed Mama spending Christmas weekend with us. I told Mama we will have to make this a new tradition.

Martha and Mama baked six different kinds of goodies for Christmas Eve, and tonight Mama will go with us for the first time to the Harvest Church Christmas Eve Candlelight & Communion Service. I know she will love it. When I was a teenager our church in Fredericksburg, Va., would have a Christmas Eve Candlelight service. Spotswood Baptist Church always looked so beautiful lit up by candlelight. It kept all of our attention, even us kids, on the true meaning of Christmas.

So, what's the purpose of this blog entry? Use it as a reminder. Let's keep our focus on Jesus this Christmas, and all year long. Let's love our loved ones while we can, and while they can still love us. Let's make memories, so we can reflect on them years from now, and for others to remember after we are gone.

I believe precious memories are a gift from God. They can't be taken away. Even after 21 years, I still vividly remember the things my Dad would say. Mama talks about memories of her childhood as if they were yesterday. Memories, they are precious. Make new ones this Christmas.