Christmastime [was] Here -- Family Traditions Edition

When our first child or two was still very young my husband and I spent some time discussing what traditions we wanted to start for our little family. A few of these traditions go back to those conversations but I've since found that the best traditions are not the ones that you plan but the ones that are such a hit this year that we couldn't imagine not doing them again next year.

This is one of those traditions.

Several years ago our neighbors invited us to their church for Christmas Eve services. Most years my family gets together on Christmas Eve but we decided at the last minute to drag our kids out to the 11:00 p.m. service. Was it the thrill of going somewhere w.a.y. past bedtime? The candle light? The drums and music? I don't really know, but they LOVED it. Every year since they start asking mid November if we can go to church at midnight. This year there was no 11:00 service but we enjoyed the 6:00 service just as much and a certain 7 year old was pretty proud when I handed him my real candle with real fire. Small children are given glow sticks, this was a right of passage moment for sure!

Our tradition of spending Christmas day at home is one that came from my parents. They determined when we were young that we would not be part of the rat race wherein you rip open presents at one Grandma's house so you can run another Grandma's house for more loot. We've done this with our kids too and I think it's my favorite of all traditions. It makes Christmas day relaxing and calm. The very best gift a Mama could get! We usually grill steak and throw some baked potatoes in the oven for a mid afternoon meal. We don't often buy steak, so it's a special meal that requires minimal time in the kitchen.

Stocking stuffers (usually exciting things like toothbrushes or batteries) are torn open with bedheads and pj's. Breakfast is simple, fruit and pastries, (with a side of bacon, by special request this year) and must be cleaned up before "real" gifts are opened.

Someone new read the Christmas story this year and did a pretty fantastic job of it! I don't believe Caesar Augustus is included in the first grade sight words list.

 
The "real" presents were not numerous but they were well received.

Important life skills are being learned here. Gotta teach 'em young!

 

The problem with that whole "White Christmas" dream...
  it makes it hard to break in a new bike.

Mommy was pretty excited about her gift this year too! Not necessarily surprised, but definitely excited!
My husband spoils me! Looks like I'm set up to return the favor now.

Another evolving tradition is that of handmade gifts. This is a good time of year to start searching for ideas if you'd like to make your own gifts this Christmas. I, however, tend to get my best ideas the week or two before Christmas. Here are a few of this year's projects....

Reindeer Root Beer for the guys.

These were super simple and you can never go wrong with food gifts.

Hand painted signs for the ladies...

Slowly convincing my husband that saving the boards from the part of the barn we tore down was a good idea.

I had a lot of fun making these but they were somewhat time consuming.

Maybe I should have started before December 15th.

 ***************

We spent the end of Christmas week with Garry's family. His 2 sisters were here from out of state and the whole family was together for the first time in 2 years. Two brand new baby nieces to be spoiled and loved on. Food. Games. Cousin time. And a round of family pictures. Never a dull moment!

 Somebody was pretty sure she was solely responsible for baby holding and nuk retrieving.

 

  If you happen to notice the blanket behind Little Miss Adorable, it's another last minute DIY gift idea.

I've had several requests for adult sized ones for next year. =)

 Plenty of food. Always.

This picture may or may not have been requested as appropriate compensation for their act of goodwill.

 You guys rock!  Really, you do! 

(Even if you have to remind us...frequently.)

Game time.

It's been 5 years and 5 new grandchildren since our last attempt at family pictures.

It was painful but we endured to the end for the prize.

And yes, bribery during family pictures is one of our favorite traditions too!

Christmastime [was] Here -- Part I

Our Christmas tree, finally up and decorated after much drama and stress.

 

I thought we'd go small this year, save a few bucks and not overwhelm our living room. I didn't realize until it was wrapped and ready to go that they were priced by variety, not size. Oops! there goes the "save a few bucks" plan. When we were ready to set it up, we discovered a crack in the tree stand. So it spent a few redneck days propped in the corner in a bright orange bucket. Classy huh?
 

 After 2 trips to the store we were the proud owners of a brand spanking new tree stand with bolts too short to even reach the skinny truck of our dainty little tree. The husbands patience may or may not have been running a bit thin by the time he screwed extra pieces of wood on either side and made 2 trips to the hardware store for bigger bolts but finally that baby was upright...until we started to add lights and garland. Sigh. In the end, she was a very pretty tree. I decided to stick with neutrals this year and I loved the way it turned out. My kids did not agree, they were a tad bitter that I ignored those pretty red balls.

This was my moment of enlightenment this year. I admit to being a little stingy about the Christmas tree decorating at my house. I just don't have the stamina to allow a 5 year old to arrange all the ornaments in a 18 inch space. This year I gave them this little yard sale tree and some sturdy ornaments and made it there tree. The arranged and rearranged to their little hearts connect, with all the red they could find! Bingo. This tradition will live on another year.

 The Mr. dutifully adds sparkling charms to our rustic barn and charming cottage. Our big front porch just begs for icicle  lights. Even he admits that they are pretty enough to be worth the hassle.

While he spruces up the outside, I tackle the indoors. My {super} limited chalkboard skills struggled for several hours to pull this off.

My first grader got inspired and whipped out his own version in less than half an hour. He insisted he needed water to dip his chalk in too. =)

We made a few special treats, although not nearly as many as most years. I had some fun experimenting with my peppermint essential oil. Mmm!

Peppermint Stripe Popcorn. 

Our Christmas celebrations took us to the cabin with family for a long weekend before Christmas. It was a glorious four days of "nothing to do" in the midst of crazy busy preparations and parties. We drank coffee, played games, read, drank coffee, slept in, snacked, relaxed and drank another cup of coffee. That poor coffee maker didn't know what hit it.

We let the kids act out the Christmas story. Finally we have a "Mary" after 8 boys in the family. She was quite pleased with her roll as "Jesus Loves Me's" Mommy. (That's what she says instead of Baby Jesus, I hope no one ever corrects her!)

So it wasn't quite Broadway but they had fun and I heard they're making a movie out of it, special thanks to the only cousin not pictured and his new ipad.

We returned from our relaxing paradise on Monday with 36 hours to finish wrapping and preparing for Christmas day. Coming up in the next post, some of our favorite family traditions.

Just a memory.....

  It came. It f.i.n.a.l.l.y. came and now it's gone. We are left with plenty of good memories, a few new toys, and only 355 more days to wait until it comes again.

 I got to go in and help make sugar rush on a stick fun Christmas-y crafts with one of the kids school classes. It's always fun to get to see what their worlds look like and interact with the people who's names I hear in the afternoons.

We went to our favorite Christmas Eve. service. Albeit  not on Christmas Eve. But Christmas Eve. Eve. was good enough for us. Below are all my little people spit-shined and decked in Christmas fancies for the occasion. And surprisingly enough all looking the same direction. Aren't they a handsome bunch?

 The only thing to do after a Christmas service is have hot chocolate, popcorn and cookies in our pj's.

We discovered a hidden treasure in our little town. A light show choreographed to music. It was pretty impressive for these parts and the kids loved it!

One very patient Daddy who spent several hours turning 4 bazillion pieces into someones Christmas gift.

We got just enough snow to call it a white Christmas.

Christmas Morning's sleep eyes, bed heads and stocking stuffers. I love how my kids get great thrills out of things like toothbrushes and chapstick just because they were wrapped up and put in a stocking.

We were pretty excited about our newly acquired treasures.

If that smile doesn't make a few hours of assemble worth it, I don't know what would. We also learned an important lesson about ordering from Amazon. Thankfully I ordered this one early. Two weeks later it had nearly doubled in price. Yikes! I had know idea prices vary that much. Take note for next year Mama.

If you read my post on my birthday gift you will now be even more convinced that I am old and boring but I got exactly what I asked for for Christmas too, even though I was only joking when I asked. I really did not expect the hubs to jump on it. I knew the day we moved in that our water had issues but the numbers they gave us when we finally got it tested were pretty ridiculous (metals and impurities 100x the recommended, yeah, for real.) When you hear that, there is really no way you can say, "No, I think we'll wait a while before we install that system you're selling." Feeling blessed to have options and ways to fix the problem and enjoy good healthy water right in my kitchen.

And in between all the excitement, gifts, spending time with family, relaxing, paper, ribbons, pictures and memories, we made sure we consumed ample amounts of this......

just because.

Good times were had by all!

Now is it Christmas?

We're having a bit of  holiday confusion at our house. First of all, there were presents and cousin time to go along with our deep fried turkey. Since the 'out-of-towners' who came back home this year, did so over Thanksgiving, we had our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebration in one big happy day.

Then surely the arrival of the tree in our living room means Christmas is here, right? My kids sure thought so. I explained that we were just 'getting ready' for Christmas but land sakes, that tree is half dead already and it's STILL not Christmas.

Twinkly lights, lots of them. They look so cozy and pretty but even they don't mean it's Christmas.

And believe it or not there is even a few gifts under the tree. Santa never comes to our house so Mom and Dad have taken over. They may be from yard sales but who cares, they are presents just the same, right?

The cookies are baked. Good thing Mom isn't making us wait till Christmas to eat all of them. We should probably find some neighbors and friends to share them with since none of the presents under the tree look big enough to be a treadmill.

Our mailbox is full of pictures of people we haven't seen since last year's picture. We even managed to get our pictures sent out at the beginning of December this year.

If you didn't get a paper copy, We wish you a 

 MERRY CHRISTMAS

  too!

The candles are lit.

We've made sweet treats to thank people that we appreciate.

 {While the school boys wrote cards for their teachers the little ones wanted in on the fun too. I gave Kyra a card to write on and when she was finished she brought it to me. "Who is that for? I asked. "For Joseph," she said, I guess she's been listening to some of the story anyway.}

We're counting down the days with this fun project. A wrapped story for each day in December. Just remember, if you plan to use library books for this you should keep track of due dates. I may or may not have learned that lesson the hard way.

While we wait for Christmas to get here we pass the time by playing with our very own Nativity set.
And every time that sweet little voice says, "Mommy, can I play [with] my Jesus Loves Me?" (a.k.a. Baby Jesus)  my heart melts. 

I love the signs that my children are picking up the real meaning of Christmas. In the van today, one of them said, "Mom, this is the Baby Jesus song we sang at church, the one that says 'REmanual'."

 

 Wishing you and yours a Blessed Holiday!

{and if you happen to read a blog where the writer can't decide whether to write in first or third person, just go with it and try not to let it ruin your holiday spirit!}