Holiday Spirit and Family Traditions

Thanksgiving has come and gone. I am finally getting into the holiday spirit! Our family tradition every year, is that Black Friday, we do not go shopping; we stay home and decorate our home with the kids while listening to Christmas music all day. It is one of the days that my husband is always off work, so it works out nicely that he is here and we can do it as a family. 

So the tree is up and if I do say so myself it looks beautiful! I am one of those who has to have as many lights on it as I can get on there! I love the lights! This year only 4 strands made it on the tree, as two of my other strands had lighting issues :(  But this mama built the tree, and put the lights on that worked. After that the kids came in and they did all the bulbs and ornaments themselves! I love seeing their faces light up when they are putting them on the tree. Daddy then puts the skirt under the tree and the last thing, our santa clause on top. That is daddy's job every year! 


Now being a couple days after Thanksgiving today I began the good ole wrapping tradition. Most my gifts are bought and here, of course I am waiting for the last few things I ordered to arrive. I also have 3 more people to buy for as well, but of course these are the hardest 3 people to buy for so they may not get presents to Christmas Eve LOL. But today, I was able to wrap about 1/3 of the gifts that I have here and started sorting them into bags based on whose home they go to for our Christmas activities. 

My husbands family has Christmas as a whole family on Christmas eve, we all gather for dinner, then after we all take turns opening our presents from each others families. My husband has a semi-large family, so we have lot of kids and adults all gathered together and we all have a blast, each of us takes turns opening the presents from everyone else! The kids love it, and we all get to see who got what. Then after we all kick back and relax, settle in for some pie and cookies and sometimes even pull out the family games and play a few for a little while. 

Then a family tradition at home Christmas Eve, after the long Christmas Eve events at my husbands families home, we nestle into our pjs, light a fire, and all gather in the livingroom cuddled up on the couch and settle in for a family movie, Polar Express! After that the kids put out their cookies and milk for Santa and its off to bed they go. Dad and Mom then await for the time that Santa arrives! 

Christmas Day we are up before dawn, the kids open their presents and daddy cooks us a family breakfast. I don't have much family so most years we just stay home and enjoy the day as a family. We open all the presents and take as many as we can out of their boxes and get rid of majority of the garbage out. All the wrapping paper gets set aside and used to start fires in the fire place! And that completes our holiday. 

Thinking of all the family traditions puts me more in the holiday spirit, this week I will be starting my Christmas cards and sending them out in a week or two. It usually takes me that long to get them all made out. So thinking of our family traditions, what are yours? Do you do anything special as a family for the holidays? I would love to hear them, please post them over on the facebook page :)

Happy Holidays to you all! Hope you will join me in the Holiday spirit!

Until Next Time:
Mom of Many