Christmas Traditions

This is my favorite time of the year! Hands down.  I just feel like people are happier, kinder, and more caring about other people.  Sure, there are those people that run over others on Black Friday to get a good deal - but I stay away from them. 

As a kid - Christmas started the day after thanksgiving, when my dad would bring up all the decorations from the basement, we would all pile into the car to get a tree, and we would spend the weekend making the house look magical.  I am sure that there were years where this is not how it went, but I don't remember any.  My parents worked hard to create a fun holiday time for us:  we would build gingerbread houses, have parties where Santa would come (even if one year we saw him smoking, then put his beard back on before coming in the building), bake Christmas cookies, go shopping, and just spend time together.  Looking back, I never got the impression that they were busy or stressed out, or that doing all these things with us as kids was anything less that wonderful.  I really want to re-create that for my kids. And there is no excuse - Nate and I both work, but so did my parents, and so many other parents out there.  So, while they will not remember these holidays, I want to start traditions now - and stick to them. They will have pictures to prove it.

I realize that this means I might not have a perfectly clean house - or Nate and I might eat left overs a few too many times - but I would rather be doing fun stuff with the kiddos.  So here is my goal list:

1. Go shopping as a family and fill the cart with toys - and take them to Toys for Tots.
2. Watch all the old school Christmas movies - like Frosty and Rudolf
3. Drive around a look at Christmas lights.  (okay, I don't know how much they can see out of there car seats, but we will give it a shot)
4. Starting on December 1st - wear our new Christmas PJs
5. Have fires in the fireplace - lots of them.
6. Take a picture with Santa
7. Bake Christmas cookies - maybe Henry and Zoey can play on the floor of the kitchen while we do this this year :)
8. Deliver Christmas cookies to parents in the NICU.  I can't imagine how hard it would be to be there during the holidays - so any little think to brighten their day.
9.  Enjoy lots of family time: as a family of 4 and with Grandma and Grandpa, Papa and Nana, Molly, Nick, Kendall, and our new niece coming TOMORROW!!


In addition to all of these - I know that there are many traditions that we will keep - like Christmas Eve Eve, and Christmas Eve, and opening up gifts on Christmas morning. 

And since that post had way to many words - here is a cute picture of Henry and Zoey. Henry is trying to take Z's helmet off.  Don't worry Henry - it will be off for good in 2 weeks!