A Christmas Full of Traditions

Christmas is such an awesome time! I just love decorating and buying presents and giving presents... and, of course, Christmas traditions!

When we had Avery, I wanted to make sure we started some Christmas traditions, and each year we've added something else that we'll do the next year too.

I've already bought the girls' pajamas, which they will open Christmas Eve night and wear that night and Christmas morning. They also will open an ornament for this year and put it on the tree. I want my kids to have a good collection of Christmas ornaments to take with them to their own houses when they move out and start a family of their own.

We also had Horton, our Elf on the Shelf, show up and start a new tradition of our Elf on the Shelf breakfast. We started the Elf on the Shelf tradition last year and added the breakfast for this year. Avery loves Horton and it's a really easy way to make her remember to be a good girl for Santa so he will bring her toys.

Last year, I also added a book tradition. I collected tons (20) of Christmas-related books and wrapped them, putting them under the tree. For the 20 nights leading up to Christmas, Avery chose one wrapped book and we opened it and read it together around the Christmas tree. This year I was good and bought 5 more throughout the year, so now we can start it the night before December 1st. The book idea is great because Avery loves to read and also because a lot of the books talk about the real meaning of Christmas, which is Christ, of course, and it gives us a good chance to discuss that. We end the book tradition with reading The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve night before going to bed.

And this weekend we added another fun thing to do. We always go drive around and see the lights. Last year we visited Our Lady of the Snows Way of Lights, Rock Springs Parks' Christmas Wonderland, and also just looking at fun houses that have been decked out. On a whim, I decided we'd go to Rock Springs Parks Saturday night - a completely lazy day for us, as we had NOTHING to do. I should have taken a picture, but I didn't, but all 4 of us got into our pajamas (for those that hadn't gotten out of them all day, anyway) and put on our slippers and loaded in to the van. We ran through and got some food and ate our food and drove through the lights. It was a rainy, chilly night, and Avery just loved putting on our pjs to get in to the car - we've never done that before!

This Christmas is going to be so fun with her, as she is really getting it even more than last year. That also means lots of asking for presents, which we are trying to contain. Her grandparents and aunts and uncles don't help - she gets everything on her list and more! ;) That's why we always try to give back to our friends and neighbors, and this year I think Avery understands that even more. This Christmas season has already been amazing - I'm excited there's still about a month left! :)