Christmas Day Traditions: Christmas with the Moulders

Merry Christmas!

I guess you could say we are between two Christmas Day Traditions as I type this: we have been to church and now my family is waiting on me, so that we can go to my in-law's home. They will be okay to wait a bit because I need to share these memories today.

This year I tried to hold tight to traditions my family has created over the last six years while bringing in some new things. We made sure to have pictures with Santa and last night we had tamales (a tradition I picked up from growing up in South Texas).

This Christmas I have longed for traditions of my childhood possibly due to living in boxes and boxes of old pictures of my family. I am in the middle of moving everything to digital and doing so I am capturing their memories.

My favorite Christmas memories always took place on Christmas day. It wasn't the gifts that we would open.

It was what happened afterwards. We would put on our Christmas best and pose by the tree.

We would normally pose with one toy each ad those were the toys we eagerly took to Aunt Mary's house.

I would say as long as I can remember, but actually every Christmas since my first we spent with my dad's family at my Aunt Mary's home.

My Aunt Mary, My Mother with Melinda and My Aunt Ann a few Christmas before I was born. 

Every year it was the same.

Open presents

Put on our "good clothes"

And head to Dallas,  to see Aunt Mary and Aunt Ann.

And my dad's cousin, Jimmy.

There are less pictures of Jimmy because he was the family photographer, but my memories of him are numerous and unforgettable.

I love this picture because it show the plastic Santa that we still have somewhere that will forever remind me of Aunt Mary.

As the years past, the Moulder women got older and Christmases transitioned to our home.

Love that my Meme was photobombing this picture. 

This year I am so grateful for these women (and man) and the Christmases we spent together as we continued the Moulder traditions.

All of the Moulder in 1947. My family is the young boy on his father's lap right int he middle. 

So, in the end, I am reminded that Christmas is not about tamales or pictures with Santa (though the one above is a classic), it's about family.