By the time this paper hits your doorstep, you will most likely be deep in the midst of baking a turkey or putting that special pie in the oven on Christmas Eve.

This year has been a challenging year but it is time to enjoy the season with family and friends. Whether you are preparing for a trip to grandmother’s house or you are now in the role of grandmother/grandfather yourself, it is a time to make memories.

This is the time of year when thoughts of our own childhood days often come rushing back. It is the time of year when we look at our adult children and remember how absolutely delighted and delightful they were as they waited for Santa, or sang in the church program, or donned the angel costume for the school play.

We remember certain recipes and hope we can make a pie or dressing as wonderfully delectable as our aunt, mother or grandmother.

We look for the good and try to help those who are not as fortunate. More things cause that warm and fuzzy feeling.

It isn’t the gift that we give or get that is important, it is the memory we hold dear or pass on that will far outlive the tie, computer game or perfect jewelry.

It is a time of tradition—and that includes making traditions of your own as well as celebrating valued traditions passed on by those you love and some you have lost.

Of course, things can get very melancholy too. I just attended our “family” Christmas that is a yearly tradition on my mother’s side of the family. While it is enjoyable seeing cousins I haven’t seen in a year, each year there is an older relative no longer there. My mother is the last of her family to celebrate with us. Her two brothers and her sister as well as a brother-in-law have all gone.

So, I realize there are times the holidays will bring sadness as well as happiness and that is OK too.

The fact that we remember our loved ones more on special occasions just proves that while they are gone physically, the love we had for them and the memories we have of them will live for eternity.

By carrying on traditions with our families, we pass down the special cookies that “Aunt Ida” brought to the house; we share a special “secret” recipe for turkey stuffing that “Nana” used to make; we delight in telling the story about a certain ornament or valued decoration that belonged to one of our children or one of our great-great grandmothers.