Christmas Traditions

One of the things I love most is creating and keeping traditions with my kids.  I hope when they are older that they will look back on their childhood and think fondly of the times we spent together, and maybe even continue some of these same traditions with their own kids.  Below are some of our Christmas traditions.

1. Christmas Tree
Growing up, the day after Thanksgiving was the highly anticipated day because that's when the Christmas tree went up.  We've always done that at my parents house since that's where we celebrated Thanksgiving.  But this year for the first time we hosted Thanksgiving here in our new home and so we got to put up our tree with the kids.

2. Ornaments
Since the kids were born I've been collecting ornaments for them each year.  Now that they are old enough to have opinions I let then choose their own.  This year big L has been into Transformers and chose Bumblebee.  Lil P loves Barbie and started dance this year and chose a Barbie ballerina.  For baby T, I customized an ornament from Shutterfly with some photos to commemorate his first Christmas.

3. Gingerbread Houses
On Christmas Day we decorate gingerbread houses with the cousins. This year I found Snoopy doghouses complete with Snoopy marshmallow and cardboard character cutouts for the kids.

4. Christmas Cookies
As if the kids didn't get enough sugar from all the candy while decorating gingerbread houses they also had cookies to decorate and eat.  My sister prepared sugar cookies and an assortment of colored icing in squeeze bottles perfect for little hands.  The kids went to town creating what they called 6 layer cookies, i.e. 6 layers of sprinkles sandwiched between icing.  Talk about sugar high!

Beautifully decorated cookies!

I think sometimes I get lost in all the preparation and cooking for Christmas that I forget to slow down and just enjoy the moment.  These pictures remind me of the joys of being able to celebrate with family and make lasting memories.