Do you have any Holdiay Traditions?

Happy Holidays,

I've been thinking a lot about Christmas traditions....thinking that it's important to have something for our children to look forward to and to hopefully someday pass along to their families.

Looking back, I don't really remember much about Christmas. I remember making the trips to each grandparent's, step grandparents and so on to eat, and I know that I got presents. But it wasn't until I married Robb that I actually saw how the atmospheres of Christmas could bring wonderful fond memories.

I have always loved the holidays; any and all of them, but Christmas is my favorite. As stated in another post, I love it all. So we have taken over the years what we have learned from Robb’s family and we have begun to make our very own traditions.

· We put the tree/decorations up the weekend of Thanksgiving and sadly take everything down the week of New Years.

· We open one present on Christmas Eve after mass and it’s ALWAYS new pajamas. Anyone staying at our house gets this same gift as well. We also leave milk and cookies for Santa and Oatmeal and carrots for the reindeer. We have to read The Night Before Christmas usually while watching A Christmas Story. You see, Robb looked like Ralphy when he was a kid and we think Jacob is reincarnated Ralphy. We love that show and watch it each year like it's the first time we have ever seen it.

· Our tree always has white lights and every ornament we own, goes on it. It’s fun to go through them and look at the years we didn’t have much money and we just had paper bows for the tree. It’s some of my favorite memories.

· An Angel is always on top of our tree looking over our family. Robb purchased that Angel for me our first Christmas. She isn’t the most beautiful one, but I love her just the same. I am sure it didn’t cost much and didn’t come from a fancy boutique, but lord only knows we had NO sense to us buying a tree, ornaments, and an Angel that year. She is always the very last thing to go on the tree.

· We exchange Christmas ornaments with each other every year. Robb has made it a tradition of selecting a beautiful Waterford Christmas ornament to adorn our tree each year. This year we counted and there are 14 on our tree. Sparkly! We also buy the kids an ornament each year in hopes they can dangle from their very own trees someday.

· I like to have ornaments with photos, so after Christmas each year, I print out a photo of the kids and go out to the sales looking for that one ornament that will hold the photo. It’s fun each year looking back at how much everyone has changed.

· Robb and I have been talking lately and this is a family tradition that came from his dad Walt and we have decided it’s our favorite of all….. For the longest time in my husband’s family there were no young children (the youngest was about 16 when I entered the family). Stockings were always a big deal in his family. So the year we were married, we were instructed that stockings were changing. Everyone was puzzled by this, but went along with it anyway. The new changes were - we were all to buy/make/take/have an individual item for each person at Christmas that year wrapped, labeled, and ready to drop in the stockings. We all obliged. As it turns out, come Christmas morning, our stocking were hung by the fire place filled with goodies from everyone in the family. It was so much fun unwrapping all the items we had received. Some things were the freebies people had gotten through out the year, lottery tickets, funny little jokes of something that may have happened though out the year and so on. There are even a couple of items that have been passed to one another through the years. Since then, he has kept this tradition (this will be its 17th year) at his house and has the same lady make the same exact stocking with our names on them for every new person who has entered the family. Since I entered the family there were probably 8 or so that hung over the fireplace and for 2006 we will have 19 stockings hung on the fireplace. It’s fun to take photos each year and see all the stockings and how much our family has been blessed with the growth we have had. So, our tradition is…no matter what your plans are for Christmas, who is in town, or where you are going, you must drop off your stocking stuff at my Father in Laws house by Christmas Morning.

I would love to hear your favorite traditions? Do you have any?

Until then, stay warm, enjoy the spirit, and do a random act of kindness, you will be amazed at how good you will of the rest of the day.

Love,
Angela