Merry Christmas!!

I hope you have a blessed time with your family and friends.  It has been a busy week in my house.  All my children were home for Christmas and we had a very nice time as family. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays.  I think it’s the most beautiful season of all. I love the lights, Christmas songs, baking cookies, Apple Cider, Egg Nog, not to mention the shopping.  It’s the season of love and giving.  Ahh.. one more thing.. I love White Christmas.. I think Christmas without the snow is like hot chocolate without marshmallows 😊

In my house, the Christmas tradition starts on Thanksgiving.  It’s always a buffet style as we always have big company.  We invite friends who don’t have relatives close by to share the turkey and trimmings.  Then in the weekend, we put up the Christmas tree and decorate it together.    

On Christmas eve, we have a family dinner, then we open one present.  On Christmas morning, we open all presents and eat the leftovers from Christmas Eve dinner.  I hang Christmas stockings on the fireplace and we have a small tree with ornaments that we can open and stuff things like chocolate, money, notes, etc.  When my kids were little, each one of them gets one bulb a day and on Christmas day, whoever wakes up the earliest can take the last bulb on the tree. Now, they are grown up and don’t live at home anymore.  So, on Christmas day, they pick up 4-5 bulbs and open them at the same time.  Still it’s fun for them to see what they get inside the bulb. 

It still amazes me that after all the presents, slowly but surely they make their way to Christmas stockings hung on the fireplace and start reaching into it.  I realize it doesn’t matter what the age is, the traditions we created stay with them and they always look forward to the Christmas stockings 😊

When I created the tradition, I want my children to remember what we do as a family during the holidays to make memories and hopefully they can pass it to their children.  Now, they are grown up and they make it a priority to come home for the holidays even for a few hours and they have to drive a few hours to go home because they have to work the next day.  It blessed me more than anything, seeing my children sitting on dining table and having a great time with their siblings and enjoying the food and company.   

What is your tradition??  If you don’t have one yet, you can start now 🙂