I love that a few of my kids are starting to understand more about the holidays and remembering what family traditions go with them. I would say that the Christmas holiday definitely takes the lead in the ammount of traditions we have though. I love all the traditions we have, from the simple/basic traditions, to the more personal family ones. I also love doing something new and finding out how much we liked it and deciding that we will make that a new family tradition.
Some of our favorite family traditions are:
-Setting up the Christmas Tree together (usually the Sunday after Thanksgiving)
-Decorating a gingerbread house together
-Doing our countdown calendars
-Driving around to see the lights on Christmas Eve
-Baking yummy treats to take around to our neighbors
-Picking out fun gifts for all our favorite people!
-Reading Christmas books all month long
-Watching fun Christmas movies all month long
-Listening to and Singing Christmas music all month long
-Acting out the Christmas Story on Christmas Eve
-Opening new pajamas from Mom and Dad on Christmas Eve
-Putting out milk and cookies for Santa and sprinkling "reindeer food" all over the driveway for the reindeer!
-We usually try and do the 12 days of Christmas for a family in need
-Sending out Christmas Cards (usually with a picture and update) to our loved ones! AND receiving Christmas Cards from our loved ones!!!
-Ward Christmas Parties!
-Work Christmas Parties!
-Teaching the kids about the true meaning of Christmas in every way we can throughout the month!
-Going to the store together and having the kids help pick out toys to donate to the local charities that collect toys for families in need!
-Donating to the food bank and teaching the kids about why we do that.
-Making Christmas crafts all month long
-Picking out a special ornament for each kid for that year; the kids get a new ornament every year and we write their name on it and date it so they will have them someday to remember all their Christmases by.
-Writing letters to Santa
-Drinking hot chocolate and eating buttered toast after a fun day out in the cold...I usually associate this with our Christmas traditions because it always happens several times during December and we always talk about how lucky and blessed we are to have a warm house and good food to eat and that there are a lot of people who are not as fortunate...like I said- teaching kids these lessons every way we can!
-Wrapping presents
-Yummy breakfast on Christmas morning (when I grew up we always had a big Christmas breakfast at my Grandma and Grandpa Crosby's house, but now we just have Jason fix us up some yummy grub!)
-After the kids go to sleep, Jason and I open our gifts to each other. After that is all over with, we really get into 'playing Santa' and bringing everything out of hiding and setting it all up for the kids. We usually stay up way too late and fall asleep watching a Christmas movie.
-I could go on and on, but my eyes are starting to close on me because I'm very sleepy, so I guess I will finish this list later!
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