Now that I have kids, I just love the holidays! That's not to say that I didn't enjoy Christmas before having children, it's just that I enjoy it so much more now. Seeing the excitement in my children's eyes as we put ornaments on the Christmas tree or walk past Santa Claus in the mall is just wonderful! It makes me remember the magic that I felt during the holiday season, and reminds me to thank God for the precious gifts I have been given in my children.
Drew's Dad and I have done (what I think is) a wonderful job of meshing our two families' traditions together, while coming up with some new ones of our own. We want our children to enjoy many of the things that we did as children, and to learn to appreciate the value of family traditions.
Some of our favorite traditions are hiding the pickle in the Christmas tree, and the first child to find the pickle receives a special gift. We enjoy baking a birthday cake on Christmas Eve as a family to celebrate Jesus's birthday. We enjoy having a Christmas "sing-a-long" on Christmas Eve with the whole family! When I was a child, my sister and I used to perform for all of the grandparents. I can't wait until Drew and his sister put on a little Christmas Eve show for us! We enjoy driving around our area looking at all of the holiday lights, and we enjoy a trip to the Zoo each year for the Wildlights.
There are just so many little things to look forward to at this time of year, where we celebrate our saviours birth! What are your favorite holiday traditions?
1 comment:
I thought about doing the birthday cake on Christmas Eve, too- but Matt's birthday is on the 22nd and we're really tired of birthday cake by Christmas, lol!
We buy each child an ornament to represent something they're interested in for the year, and when they grow up, they can have their ornaments as a start to their own Christmas traditions. We have friends who do a "Jesus Stocking," and it hangs in the middle of the mantle. Everyone writes something down to give to Jesus on his birthday.
We're going to the Christmas parade on Saturday and we love the advent services at church- I think there is supposed to be a Christmas program done by the kids this year- Matt might be in it. We'll see how well he cooperates!
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