Christmas With The Liles' Family
Jesus taught us to serve by washing the disciples feet. He also taught us that it is "more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20:35 (NIV) The idea of giving an unexpected gift of service to members of your family is to demonstrate Christ-like love and service. You might consider giving a back rub to your spouse, running an errand for your brother, or cleaning out a closet for your mother. Make it personal and meaningful and watch the blessings multiply.
Welcome to the Liles Family Christmas pages. We love Christmas time and spend the entire month of December quite actively pursuing family activities.
For almost twenty-eight years we took our family and close friends to the Candlelight Dinner Pavilion Theater for the Christmas Play for their Christmas present. We like giving "memories" instead of "stuff".
We began in 1988 with just the two of us. In 2012 we took 56 people and 2013 we have sixty reservations..... In 2015 we have 98 going!
With COVID wreaking havoc and the theater being old, the playhouse had to close in 2022.
Life Took A Dramatic Change!
It is with a great amount of sadness that I lost my beautiful wife in February of 2020 after several years of failing health. This was our favorite season for many reasons and Christmas of 2019 we had serious discussion about "what if the unthinkable happens?" It happened and Sue assured me that I was to go forward and live a good life.
I Remarried To A Magnificent Lady; A Family Friend For Years!
We met Dr. Mary Cote in 2000 at a Starlighters Dance Club event. She joined the club and was a member along with us for twenty plus years.
Over those years we went to more than one hundred dances and another thirty separate events which involved dancing.
When Mary's husband left her she was quite alone, just like me. Jan Mongell, a mutual friend and dance instructor, called me and said, "Paul! You need to call Mary as both of you are sad and lonely". Well, I called and we had a nice dinner on July 28th 2020 and as you know, we were married July 28th 2021.
Traditions Sometime Change, COVID Being A Changer!
We went to Disneyland on Christmas Eve early in the morning and stay until about 5PM at which time in recent years we go to Catal for dinner. If the weather permits, we even watch the fireworks! Of course, with family and friends! Sue went to Christmas Eve at Disneyland for fifty-four years without a miss.
I stopped going to Disneyland when they took their left-hand turn and went woke. No more will I support such an un-Ameircan far-left organization. I am happy Sue was not here to see their nose dive into the gutter!
Rogers Gardens is always a must and we still do that! The Five Crowns was a tradition for years but alas the price was exorbitant for us so we do our local restaurants instead.
Huntington Harbor Cruise Of Lights is an enlightening experience so we do that every few years. We also like to walk through Naples and see the houses so decorated. Mary introduced me to the Balboa lights walk.
Several formal Christmas Dances are also a needed event, we search for those and ho when we can. In the past many years, we went to the Huntington Library for High Tea during December.
The Christmas Story is a mandatory movie and watching Scrooge at the Orange County South Coast Preparatory is mandatory! We have done this also sine 1988. Other festivities keep us hopping.
Carols and Christmas Cards are fun!
Another terrible loss was the shuttling down of the Candlelight Dinner Theater. COVID did them in along with the tremendous increase in lease and maintenance costs of the 90 years old building. It was a tradition lasting over 30 years.
Christmas' Past...
This is us at Christmas time! Our most favorite time of the year (other than summer!!)
2003 (Just after the back operation)
Sue passed in February of 2020 and I thought my life was over. That's to STRONG support from family and friends I was able to get back up and begin life again!
Dr. Mary Côté re-entered my life in July of 2019 (we have been friends since the mid 1990s). We got along very well and decided to celebrate Christmas together. Robin and Bob immediately accepted her into the family (Robin is a good judge of character). Chritmas was different but thoroughly enjoyable.
2019
What's In This Site???
We have collected Christmas thoughts and Christmas humor . We watch all the Christmas movies and get even more romantic and visit our friends as part of the season. We always remember the soldiers who put their lives on the line to protect our culture and make us safe.
Since 2000 , we have added some of the year by year Christmas activities to our website so our family and friends can look back at the fond memories of the season. Please join the fun! Don't forget the music of the season !
Random Christmas Quote
Christmas Quote:
Best Of Christmas 2000-20xx
Come and visit each year. For family it is a great way to see the kids grow up and remember the things we have done over the years! We enjoy our traditions and they seldom change except for the ones with our immediate family since the families have to establish their own traditions. We can live with that!
"Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose." ~From the television show The Wonder Years
"We do not remember days; we remember moments." ~ Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand
"What we remember from childhood we remember forever - permanent ghosts, stamped, inked, imprinted, eternally seen." ~ Cynthia Ozick
I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. ~Charles Dickens
Music Of The Season
Note! The MP3's are protected as we had some people link to the files and downloaded nearly 700GB prior to the ISP turning off the account! Sorry for the bad behavior of some people. The data is now protected and usernames/passwords have been provided to the family!
Felize Navidad | Go Tell It On The Mountain | I Will Be Home For Christmas | Let It Snow | Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas | Santa Claus Is Coming To Town | Silver Bells | Sleigh Ride | White Christmas | Sleigh Ride | Winter Wonderland
Why We Have A Fake Tree
The Chihuahua's at work!
Speaking about trees and decorations, we are going to attempt to put the train around the tree this year. For the past many years, the herd of Chihuahua's kept chasing the train and because the train is a G-scale train, it could hurt the babies.
Now that they are older and move slower, we might have a chance to enjoy the train!
We plan to try anyway!
Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveler, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home! ~Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836
I love Christmas lights!
They remind me of those people who voted for Obama.
They all hang together,
half of them don't work,
And the ones that do,
aren't all that bright.
