Pictures to come...

I love Christmas. I always have. Who doesn't love getting up on Christmas morning and hanging out with family while opening stacks of presents?? However, it's only the last couple of years that i've been getting into the spirit of the season. I don't remember having many Christmas traditions growing up...we went to my grandma's Christmas eve, then usually a church service, and stayed at home Christmas day. Season start to finish = two days.

So it used to drive me nuts when Josh would start listening to Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving. I saw decorations as clutter. And when he talked about making gingerbread houses, all I could think of was the sticky mess it would make. (Ok, that wasn't all I could think about. I'm not a TOTAL grinch.........but it was a consideration.) And, to be fair, it hasn't been all that long since I've been out of school as a student and I'm still there as an instructor. So often, I think to myself, "Once the semester is over, then I'll begin to think about the holidays."

However, I've changed lately! I don't know if it's having kids that appreciate the season and the fun things we do, or if Josh's enthusiam for the holidays is slowly wearing me down. :) We've started doing some (hopefully) memorable things with the kids to celebrate and get into the Christmas spirit. We found and cut down our own Christmas tree. Very fun even in spite of the freezing cold temps! (And if you know me, you know I HATE to be cold.) We made and decorated sugar cookies....made the dough from scratch, cut out shapes, baked them, made our own frosting, dyed it different colors, and decorated. Messy. Delish.) We have the book Elf on a Shelf and have read that and begun to have Max the Elf (Grady named him) show up in different places. The kids got letters from Santa (via a lady from Bertch), and got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. And on Christmas eve, we will go around and look at Christmas lights. (Last year we found a neighborhood where every street had a theme, and a few houses even had music sychronized to the light display! It was amazing!!) We will also read both The Night Before Christmas and the Christmas story (in the kid's Bible) and hit up a Christmas church service. Most important of all? Just about everything listed above is done to a soundtrack of Josh's beloved Christmas music. :)

When the kids are a little bit older, there are other traditions I want to implement. For instance, I really want to do the Adopt a Family program, and have them learn about the importance of giving. I would love to see them in Christmas plays at church. And we have two healthy children...but many are not. I would love to see them do something to volunteer at the local hosptial...take toys to sick kids? I'm not sure how that would work but seems like it would be great to check into.

Pictures of some of the fun to come. What are your special holiday traditions??