Before Livi was born, we decided that it would probably be too hard to travel with 2 kids and a newborn. So we didn't make plans to go anywhere for the holidays. Now that the season is upon us, I am feeling a little
home sick. We've always gone home for the holidays, both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm pretty sure I can make it through Thanksgiving by ourselves, but I'm not so sure about
Christmas. To me, Christmas is full of cozy
traditions and fun times with the family that help us reflect on our love of life, family, and the Savior. I have so many fond memories of celebrating with my family and love the new traditions added to the mix from Andy's family. The kids love it too!! Since we are on our own this year, I want to start our own little
family traditions that our kids will remember with fondness through the years and try not to be so homesick!
Some of my favorites include opening
PJs on Christmas Eve and then eating grandma's
orange rolls with hot chocolate and wassail. Or anxiously waiting for my turn to eat the chocolate mint candies tucked into the advent calendar pocket and hanging an ornament on the felt tree. Another tradition we started when we got a little older was that the girls would do a fun craft on Thanksgiving while the guys watched football.
I think this year on Thanksgiving I am going to make an advent calendar similar to the one my mom made and using some inspiration from
this one.
So what is your favorite family Christmas tradition old or new? Please share and help us have a better Christmas this year (or you can just buy us plane tickets ;) !
So what is your favorite family Christmas tradition old or new? Please share and help us have a better Christmas this year (or you can just buy us plane tickets ;) !
9 comments:
I'm feeling the same way as you. One thing we are doing on the 23 is going to Lake Farm Parks for the Christmas festivies. I want to do a big Christmas Eve dinner/party with whoever is around. Are you interested? I just think Chrismas is about getting together and it's hard when you don't have family to do it with.
I'm right there with you on the PJs and Orange Rolls!! We always got PJs from Grandma & Grandpa and we always opened them on Christmas Eve. It had been years since I had orange rolls, but talked my mom into making them last Christmas. Sooooo good!!! In fact, I'm now craving them ...
Joe and I love love love having Christmas at our home. Thanksgiving, too (but we always invited several families and had big meal). But we especially enjoy Christmas home, alone with just our little family. Enjoy!!!
One thing I love is every Xmas eve we would all wrap our gifts and after All of them were wrapped we would all help put them under the tree while listening to bing Crosby Xmas music. We always had our fire going to make it more cozy. We would sit by the fire sip our hot choc. With all the lights out except for our Xmas lights. My dad would read us polar express, the night before Xmas, and Jesus birth from the scriptures. Then after he read that we would just sit there listen to Xmas music and talk and play around. Every Xmas morning before we were allowed to come down the stairs my parents turned back on bing Crosby cd turned the Xmas lights on. Those are my favorite memories. We would also watch Xmas movies while wrapping gifts Xmas eve. And light candles that smell like Xmas to make it feel more cozy! :)
This is going to be our first Christmas as a little family all alone too! I'll be too pregnant to travel this year. I'm feeling such a mix of excitement and sadness! I'm excited to change up some of the traditions a bit to make them uniquely ours. I bought Zach the CUTEST Christmas jammies but I don't want him to wait until Christmas eve to open them so I think we'll do a book or something different on Christmas eve and let him have the jammies around thanksgiving.
Ok, ps, just clicked on the link for the advent (knowing I am so NOT crafty enough to make one) and realized it is my friend's blog! Her name is Brooke and she is in my ward! Too funny, maybe I can just pay her to make me one.
We are closer than you, but we too have decided that it's home for the holidays for us. I think the only one having a hard time with it is ME! I feel like all the pressure is on me to make the holidays merry and bright and it's never been my whole responsibility. YIKES. I'll watch your blog for good ideas k?
Hey cousin! I, too, love the advent calendar! It was one of my favorite traditions growing up!
One that I'll start this year was something the kids got at primary today. It's a scripture story and a gospel art picture about Jesus; one for each day till Christmas. I think it'll be a good way to keep things more focused on Christ.
Post a Comment