As we celebrate our first Christmas as a family of three, I can't help but think about Christmas traditions. What do we want to be doing this year and have as an ongoing tradition for Caleb to experience and to celebrate with us?
Here are some family traditions that we keep:
Christmas Eve: It starts off early. The sisters and my dad get up before it is light out and head to the HoneyBaked Ham Store, wait in line in the freezing cold to get a scrumptious ham. Once we get the ham we do some last minute shopping with all the crazies:) ALWAYS going to church, a beautiful candle light, worshipful, musical setting to celebrate Jesus. We come back to my parents house and have hor'durves and wine. Every year we open up 1 gift--Christmas pajamas.Mom always gets a Santa on Christmas Eve. She is collecting them and has some beautiful ones. Maybe I should take some pictures of them this year, Wendi? All 3 sisters sleep in the same bed waiting for Santa to arrive. Yes, I even have done this since moving out, getting married, and being 26 years old. I doubt that this year will be any different.
Christmas Day: crazy frenzy!!! No one is allowed to go into the family room until mom and dad say it is ok. When we walk in, Christmas music is always playing with gifts galore. No really, Toy's R Us looks poor compared to Santa coming to our house. I will prove it this year:) My mom is a little excited about Christmas shopping. Anyways, we open our stockings and then we get to the gifts....one person at a time. Mom always gets a calendar. We clean up the mess and head up to grandma and grandpa's house (10 minutes away) where we have breakfast with them, my great aunt, my aunt and uncle and cousins. We always have eggs, toast, coffee and cinnamon rolls. Every. Year. Fabulous. After breakfast we open more stockings.Well, the stockings at grandma's are actually gift bags. And more gifts. Then we clean up the mess and go back to my parents house...and clean up more....and then take a nap. After our naps....we get ready for Christmas dinner, then eat the Christmas dinner and then end up having some great quality family time.
This year: I want to read the Christmas story to my son with my husband. I want to pray and worship together. And...ofcourse, all of the other amazing great traditions!!!
What traditions do you have???
2 comments:
I'm so glad you posted this, Kristin, and asked what our traditions are. My brother, Tim, called me the other night to tell me that he was thinking about one of our traditions.
After I got my license, Tim and I would take a night to finish our Christmas shopping together. We did it from the time I could drive until the Christmas before I got married and moved to DC. We'd go out to dinner, get coffee from Coffee Beanery, finish up our shopping, and also buy new pajmas from Old Navy for ourselves. We'd get home and wear our new pajamas and drink hot chocolate out of those big tin mugs Old Navy used to sell.
Traditions are so important - they create lasting memories and are somthing to look forward to throughout the year.
Merry, merry Christmas, Kristin!
We always stay at my Dad's on Christmas Eve so Paige can wake us up when she gets up to see all of the presents. On Christmas Eve we just snack and drink. Then when Paige finally goes to bed we all have to play Santa and help bring everything up from the basement. My brother has to write her Santa note because she saves the previous years and would compare handwriting. She also always leaves "reindeer food", that she and Joe make, on the front porch and we have to make sure to throw it around and bite the paper plate. Their living room on Christmas morning makes Toys R Us look poor too. Haha. On Christmas morning we always just open everything all at once, making a huge mess of course! Then Melissa makes breakfast, we all get our showers done and other family comes over for the afternoon. We usually spend all afternoon helping Paige put together her toys and we always play board games. We always have the same foods, which includes cheese fondue, my favorite! We have always been with my Dad and stepmom on Christmas because of visitation when we were younger, so that has stuck as the tradition now. My Mom doesn't even try to have us over on Christmas because it's just the way it is now!
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