Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Family Traditions!

Well a new post is long over due and this one requires some participation. Last night at 10pm (way past the kids bed time and mine!) we put up the Christmas tree. We "traditionally put it up the day after Thanksgiving, but this has not been a normal year for our family by any means. We are at my Mom's house right now for the next few weeks and so it felt like I was a kid again to be here with her. We always play Christmas music (usually the old Alvin and the Chipmunk CD). We got everything put up and turned out all of the lights before we turn on the tree lights. The kids ooh and aah and so do the adults and at that moment, for me at least, it feels like Christmas! SO here is where you come in. We have alot of fun family traditions for instance a family photo. Which we have not done yet. There is always some one doing their own thing in each picture so we just pick the best and go with it. Any how I will list some of ours and I would love if any and all of you would share your favorites so that we might be able to pick up something new this year. My sister in-law Jenni had a few on her blog today that were fun. We usually give the kids their Christmas pj's on Christmas eve, but this year she gave them to them on Dec. 1 so they can wear them all month long. Good idea. I haven't purchased all of ours yet so we will be a little behind on that but were planning on it.
* We get each of the kids a personalized ornament to hang on the tree with their name and the year on it. Then each year they have several to hang of their own.
*We have a girls baking day at my Mom's usually mid December with all of the women in our family (little girls included) and we all bake tons of yummy goodies and then split it up and take to our friends and neighbors. Of course we keep plenty to eat ourselves. I always enjoy that day with just the girls.
*Danny LOVES hot Chocolate more than the average person. So each year I make his Mom's mixture of Oh so yummy Hot cocoa and every time we go out looking at Christmas lights we fill up are thermos and bring it along for the ride.
*As far as gifts go, we get each of our kids 3 gifts representing the gifts of the 3 wise men and stocking suffers.
* We have a Christmas Eve party at mine or my sisters house were the kids open all of their gifts from extended family members. We read the Christmas story Luke 2 before any gifts are opened. We pick 2 kids to be "Santa's Helper's" and they pass out all of the presents under the tree. They LOVE to do that and it keeps everyone under control.
* I love all of the food we have on both days! On Christmas Eve we do every kind of hor d'oeuvers (how in the heck do you spell that) and sweets, hot cider and hot Choc. and Christmas Day is like Thanksgiving all over again. Turkey, ham, stuffing cranberries the works. My mouth is watering just thinging about it.
* We are doing the 12 days of Christmas where each night we will suprise the kids with doing something new.

Anyhow, those are a few of the things we do I'll add more later but he natives are getting restless and one is stinky. I hope your holidays are getting off to a great start! Don't forget to share your ideas.

6 comments:

Raimi said...

So fun to see a post from you! How in the world are you? I hope I get to see you while you are in town! Something special/fun that our little family does each year is the 12 days of Christmas. We pick a family that we will anonymously door bell ditch every night(same family) starting on the 12th of Dec.) We leave little poems with gifts/treats(things we think they might need/enjoy). My boys love getting dressed up in their dark "spy clothes" & of course they LOVE the door bell ditching part too. We blast the Christmas tunes & enjoy the family time while adding the Christmas spirit to someone else's life. One year, while growing up we did the 12 days of Christmas for my Grandma. It was her 1st Christmas w/out my Grandpa(he died of Lung cancer a few months earlier). To this day, my grandma still has no idea that it was us. When we saw her that Christmas Eve, she told us what each peice of paper had said, word for word & what her secret Elves had left for her. You could tell it made her December & I will NEVER forget that. Sorry for the long post! Happy Holidays!

Mimi said...

Oh Steph you are adding to my already very festive mood. I love all you traditions. We do the PJ thing too, but I never thought to give them to them at the begging of the month. Thanks for sharing all your fun ideas.

Holly said...

Its so good to hear from you! We've missed you so much! Most of our traditions involve my family and since we are going to be here alone for Christmas I'm not sure what we are going to do. I'll have to read all of your comments and ideas to start some of our traditions so we don't sit around depressed that we'll be alone for Christmas. One thing that my family has done every year since Jorge joined the family is a pinata on Christmas Eve.

Amy said...

We just got the "elf on the shelf" and it has been sooo much fun! My kids are more excited about their elf than anything I can remember. It has really been a fun thing for our family. I am looking forward to doing it every year from now on.

The Knight's said...

hey steph...
miss you and would love to chat with you. i need halloween pics of the kids from this year if you have any. it is for mom and dad's gift. i will call you soon. do i have your cell number?

DirknRory said...

I just got on tonight thinking that I really miss you guys and wish we could see you! Maybe we'll see you in Cali while we're there!