The Holidays: Traditions

I love keeping Christmas traditions. There are certain things that stick in my memory about Christmas growing up. I loved making the same cookies every year, that my mom put out chips and french onion dip in same dish every year on Christmas eve, going to my great grandma's high rise apartment and looking out over the city to see the lights come on, my dad reading the Luke 2 before bed, putting baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas morning before opening presents...I could probably go on and on...

Some of the traditions our family is becoming attached to:

Christmas Eve PJ's...every year the kids get a new pair of wintery/christmasy pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve.

Sibling Exchange and Daddy dates...the kids exchange names and then go on a "date" with Mark to pick out a present and grab a bite to eat.

Christmas Ornaments...each year the kids get a new Christmas ornament in their stocking, so someday when they are out on their own they will have a good start on decorating their own tree.

Christmas Trees...the kids get to decorate their own Christmas tree with all of their homemade ornaments and also the ones they get each year in their stockings. We get a live tree for the living room that I get to decorate. The kids also have little Christmas trees in their bedrooms.

Christmas Eve...we have meatball sandwiches, pepperoni pasta salad, and potato chips & dip; we go to the Candlelight Christmas Eve service and we light a Bayberry Candle in an eastern window to light the way for the Christ child; we read the Christmas story before bed and Mark and I wrap all the presents and fill the stockings after the kids are in bed.

Christmas Morning...the kids do stockings first then presents; we have egg casserole, monkey bread, bacon, and fresh fruit for breakfast; at some point in the day we head to Mark's grandma's for dinner