Christmas traditions.

It's been over a month since Christmas, and I'm finally getting around to blogging about it. Considering it's been over 13 months since Christmas 2012 & I still haven't blogged about that one, I'd say just a month overdue this year isn't too bad! This is gonna come in a few parts to make this more manageable for me. First up: the holiday season!

It's no surprise to anyone that I love Christmas. Every single thing about it. But I especially love the magic of the days leading up to Christmas. And I'm doing my very best to spread the magic and the love of Christmas to my kids. (By the way, when asked what his favorite holiday is recently, the husband chose Christmas. So don't let his Bah Humbug demeanor about decorations and traditions and all that jazz fool you. My love of the holiday has rubbed off on him.) It was important to me to start traditions when the kids were little and to make a huge effort to find "experiences" for them.

Nothing kicks off the season quite like decorating the tree. We are a strictly fake-tree household, which allows for pre-Thanksgiving tree trimming. The weekend before Turkey Day, the very enthusiastic kiddos and I put up the tree (pre-lit trees for the win!) and then they got to put up their ornaments. All of their ornaments were clustered along the bottom half of the tree, so a little ornament shuffling by mom happened once they were finished. A few days later, after telling Joe not to touch the tree for the 394th time, we bought the kids their own 4-foot tree to keep in their playroom. They were allowed to decorate it however they wanted and with whatever they wanted. Throughout the month, it was covered in dollar store ornaments (that they picked out), tiaras, Mardi Gras beads, a cowboy hat, etc. Joe rarely touched our big tree after that!

St. Nick's Night was one of my most anticipated nights as a kid; it felt like the official kick-off to Christmas. And the way I remember it is exactly the way I want my kids to remember it. We talked about what it meant the day before so they'd be excited about it (I may have had to google it to get my St. Nick facts straight...worst Catholic ever...), and they enthusiastically left their shoe on the fireplace before bed. Brooke was excited enough for both of the kids the next morning. She couldn't wait to come downstairs. St. Nick filled their shoes with candy (no nuts thanks to nut allergies) and left them oranges, a couple of books, and a few movies.

We met my sister's family at the Cincinnati Zoo's Festival of Lights on a chilly December night. The kids had a blast checking out all of the lights and animals with their cousins. Though we didn't see Santa, we did get to meet Frosty, a gingerbread man, and Mrs. Claus (who was perfectly adorable, by the way.) A very fun night for all of us!

Decorating a gingerbread house has quickly become one of my favorite holiday traditions! Let me be clear: I said decorating a house, not building. The wonderful people at Wilton have developed kits of pre-made houses that you just decorate, providing all the supplies right in the box. Best. Invention. Ever. While I enjoy the idea of doing the house, it ends up being pretty stressful for me. The OCD in me creeps on out and I have a very hard time just letting them do whatever they want. After all, I know we're going to be staring at this thing on our kitchen table for a full month, so I feel compelled to make it look somewhat orderly. I let the kids help my place the candies on the top and front, them gave them free reign of the back and sides. Using a piping bag is clearly an acquired skill...no Cake Decorating Awards will be won by my kids anytime soon. In the end, we had a fairly cute little house and they had a ton of fun making it, so it was a win-win for all of us!

We had breakfast with Santa down at the Rec Center on a Saturday morning. The kids were pretty pumped to finally get to see & talk to Santa. They brought their letters to Santa as a reminder for him. As you can see in the first picture below, Joe was jazzed to meet the Big Guy. And then, as you can see in the 2nd picture below, he changed his mind. I was really optimistic that the meeting would go well, but I was clearly mistaken. We're now 0 for 4 in our annual Santa visits; somebody always cries. After making him suffer for an agonizing 12 seconds while we took a picture, Santa gave Joe a present which at least lessened the tears. He still wasn't flipped to be on his knee, but he wasn't screaming either.

 

A tradition we started last year was the 24 Days of Christmas books. I wrapped up 24 of our Christmas books (we had more than enough) and put them in a wooden sleigh on the fireplace. Each night, the kids took turns choosing and opening a Christmas book to read before bed. They ADORE doing this and were always very quick to remind us whose turn it was to choose. It actually became a conditional thing for good behavior after we realized how thrilling it was for them; "If you don't improve your attitude, you won't get to open a book tonight." Worked like a charm (although we did have to follow through one night...1 night in over 3 weeks isn't bad, if you ask me.)

We wrapped Daddy's gifts in white paper this year and the kids spent some serious time decorating them with crayons and stickers. Joe was especially serious about his masterpiece. He wanted to cover every square inch of space with pictures of "dinosaurs". Daddy loved his special presents on Christmas morning!

That's all for now. More Christmas magic to come soon!