Look at me will you?! Two days in a row!! I am sitting at my desk surrounded by Christmas lights. The fireplace making the room cozy and warm while the wind is whipping outside. The house smells like cinnamon and pomanders. Jonny is heading out to get the four of us bigger folk some dinner so we can have a fun evening sitting in front of the fireplace and watching "A Christmas Story", one of my all time favorites.
Both boys just went down for bed with Vicks in the humidifier to hopefully soothe their atrocious coughs, and Ally is reading a book to Molly so she can head off to cuddle under her covers.
All is peaceful and quiet in the house.
My Christmas shopping is officially done, and as of this afternoon, most of my gifts are wrapped and I got my Christmas cards ready to be put in the mail.
Things feel strangely calm around here.
I thought I would steal a few moments to share with you some of our families favorite traditions. I was recently asked to teach a class on traditions in a friends church, so these are all very fresh in my mind.
When I was first married, Jonny and I put up our very formal tree sometime the beginning of October. I was bound and bent on starting up the fireplace even though it was Indian summer. The house got so hot that we had the air conditioner running and all the windows open as well. I decorated my house with my few pewny what-nots and bought an Ann Murray cassette.
I wanted so badly to have a certain type of Christmas, but being a new bride, I had no idea what that certain type of Christmas should look like.
A few years later, after Ally and Meghan came along, I decided we needed a more friendly tree and so I hit the after Christmas sales and stocked up on snowman, Santa, and candy ornaments.
We also started making Christmas cookies and having a tree-decorating night with Nana and Papa and all kinds of finger foods.
Then as our family continued to grow, I discovered the pickle ornament. After seeing someone open one of these interesting ornaments at an ornament exchange and hearing the oohs and aahs that filled the room, I was instantly curious. The tradition is to hide the pickle somewhere in the depths of the tree and whoever finds it first gets to open the first gift.
In our house, we let whoever finds it, be the gift passer-outer. Our kids really enjoy this tradition.
Another tradition we have is going to Silver Dollar City and having the kids picture made with Santa. Then we pay to have it put in an ornament and hang it on the tree. Our tree is covered with ornaments that start when Meghan was a baby to now having five children surrounding the smiling Santa (which by the way, our family has deemed the "Real Santa").
I have come to the conclusion that by the time our kids are grown, I will have to have a tree that is especially designated to hold the Silver Dollar City ornaments.
Something else we've started in the past few years, is a shopping day with me and the big girls.
When we first started, it consisted of lunch at McDonalds and trying to make their five dollars stretch for everyone on their list. It has now become on of my favorite nights of the year. We went last night and had the best time! The girls now have allowances, not to mention the little odd jobs we've found for them around the house the last couple of months. So they had a nice stash put aside to spend. We started out with a little shopping, then had sushi at Oceans Zen. I quickly figured out that my girls are growing up when the host kept insisting that we wait in the bar and have a drink until our table was ready. We spent dinner laughing over how easy it is to embarrass Ally and how frequently Meghan would look at herself in the mirror to make sure that the face she just made, didn't in any way detract from her lovely outfit.
Then we headed off to the mall to finish our shopping, then ended the night with "The Chronicles of Narnia". It was a marvelous evening!
I have realized through the years that you don't force traditions. Traditions happen slowly and often by accident. You don't necessarily use everyone you grew up with. You make your own. Write them down. I recommend buying a Christmas journal. It might sound silly, but I keep track of every gift I buy each year, how much it cost, what we had for dinner, what parties we hosted, who we sent Christmas cards to, and how God has worked on our family that year to make that particular Christmas different from the one before. I so enjoy pulling it out and reviewing each year.
I hope that you have found your special Christmas traditions that you enjoy with your family. I would love to hear about some of them. I'm always looking for something new to try each year.
Good night readers:-)
Both boys just went down for bed with Vicks in the humidifier to hopefully soothe their atrocious coughs, and Ally is reading a book to Molly so she can head off to cuddle under her covers.
All is peaceful and quiet in the house.
My Christmas shopping is officially done, and as of this afternoon, most of my gifts are wrapped and I got my Christmas cards ready to be put in the mail.
Things feel strangely calm around here.
I thought I would steal a few moments to share with you some of our families favorite traditions. I was recently asked to teach a class on traditions in a friends church, so these are all very fresh in my mind.
When I was first married, Jonny and I put up our very formal tree sometime the beginning of October. I was bound and bent on starting up the fireplace even though it was Indian summer. The house got so hot that we had the air conditioner running and all the windows open as well. I decorated my house with my few pewny what-nots and bought an Ann Murray cassette.
I wanted so badly to have a certain type of Christmas, but being a new bride, I had no idea what that certain type of Christmas should look like.
A few years later, after Ally and Meghan came along, I decided we needed a more friendly tree and so I hit the after Christmas sales and stocked up on snowman, Santa, and candy ornaments.
We also started making Christmas cookies and having a tree-decorating night with Nana and Papa and all kinds of finger foods.
Then as our family continued to grow, I discovered the pickle ornament. After seeing someone open one of these interesting ornaments at an ornament exchange and hearing the oohs and aahs that filled the room, I was instantly curious. The tradition is to hide the pickle somewhere in the depths of the tree and whoever finds it first gets to open the first gift.
In our house, we let whoever finds it, be the gift passer-outer. Our kids really enjoy this tradition.
Another tradition we have is going to Silver Dollar City and having the kids picture made with Santa. Then we pay to have it put in an ornament and hang it on the tree. Our tree is covered with ornaments that start when Meghan was a baby to now having five children surrounding the smiling Santa (which by the way, our family has deemed the "Real Santa").
I have come to the conclusion that by the time our kids are grown, I will have to have a tree that is especially designated to hold the Silver Dollar City ornaments.
Something else we've started in the past few years, is a shopping day with me and the big girls.
When we first started, it consisted of lunch at McDonalds and trying to make their five dollars stretch for everyone on their list. It has now become on of my favorite nights of the year. We went last night and had the best time! The girls now have allowances, not to mention the little odd jobs we've found for them around the house the last couple of months. So they had a nice stash put aside to spend. We started out with a little shopping, then had sushi at Oceans Zen. I quickly figured out that my girls are growing up when the host kept insisting that we wait in the bar and have a drink until our table was ready. We spent dinner laughing over how easy it is to embarrass Ally and how frequently Meghan would look at herself in the mirror to make sure that the face she just made, didn't in any way detract from her lovely outfit.
Then we headed off to the mall to finish our shopping, then ended the night with "The Chronicles of Narnia". It was a marvelous evening!
I have realized through the years that you don't force traditions. Traditions happen slowly and often by accident. You don't necessarily use everyone you grew up with. You make your own. Write them down. I recommend buying a Christmas journal. It might sound silly, but I keep track of every gift I buy each year, how much it cost, what we had for dinner, what parties we hosted, who we sent Christmas cards to, and how God has worked on our family that year to make that particular Christmas different from the one before. I so enjoy pulling it out and reviewing each year.
I hope that you have found your special Christmas traditions that you enjoy with your family. I would love to hear about some of them. I'm always looking for something new to try each year.
Good night readers:-)
Love reading about your family Jen! You are a wonderful mother!
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