Ali over at
{a} has a post about Holiday Traditions. I thought this would be a wonderful place to put our family traditions. Starting at Thanksgiving we'll move through to Christmas:
1. Thanksgiving day we all go to my Grandmother's home. She has a creek and woods behind her house. The girls love to go on a hike after dinner with their cousin Amy and my mother. This has been a tradition for many years.
2. The day after Thanksgiving we put the trees up. We have a decorative one that goes in the family room. It goes with the decor of the room. We place a "family" tree in the living room. Last year I did a picture tree. The girls chose pictures from the boxes and we taped them to card stock and hung them on the tree. This year we just put up the ornaments that we have collected over the years. It is very lovely. We also decorate the banister and entryway of the house. We turn off all the lights and play Christmas music real loud. It's magical!
3. Around the 2nd week of December we get the hen party together and have a cookie making night. We all bring the ingredients for two different kinds of cookies. Last year we did 104 cut out cookies because we tripled the recipe. (Why did we do that?) We all walk away with tins and canisters full of cookies. They are especially nice to take to an impromptu party on a festive tray.
4. Christmas eve- we go to service all dressed up and full of anticipation. We then go downtown to see the Santa Claus on the side of the building. We usually get our picture taken, and if we're lucky we see Old Saint Nick himself. We spend some time at Scott's parent's house visiting and then my mom spends the night.
5. We place our stockings on the mantel and every year he fills them and leaves them by our bed. He usually leaves a note about how much we have grown!
6. On Christmas morning we get up and open gifts and have a breakfast together. Then we bask in our Christmas glory!
Just thinking about Christmas and traditions gets me excited about the upcoming weeks. Can't wait!!!!!!
