Christmas Traditions

Garrett and Abby are old enough this year to make the Christmas season absolutely magical. They totally get the whole Santa Claus thing and love to talk, read, and sing about the baby Jesus and the Nativity story. We started three new Christmas traditions this year I am really excited about. 

We have two trees in our house this year and the one in the library is our book tree. I love Christmas books, so this year I wrapped all of them and put them under the library tree. The kids get to choose a book each day we open and read together.

 I thought this was a fun idea, but I didn't realize how brilliant it was while I was wrapping up the books. First off, it has turned into a fun little Christmas countdown and has become an easy (and cheap) way for us to count down the days until the BIG day. Garrett thought Christmas was going to be the day after Thanksgiving and prayed every night and wished upon every star for a solid week or two that Christmas would be tomorrow. We have a couple of different countdowns to help them understand, but they seem to like the books the best and they know when all the books are gone from the tree and we have read every story, then Santa will come and Christmas will finally be here.

The second great thing about it is it gets the itch out of the kids to open every present they see. Because they know they get to open a book every day, it's been easier for them to leave the other presents alone. While we're talking about how smart I am, let me also just say that not all books are created equal and I like some much more than others. Therefore, I carefully selected the flashiest wrapping paper for my favorite books in order to ensure the great ones were opened first and we can enjoy them longer. I'm getting better all the time at this mom thing. :)

 I was more than a little delighted when Garrett fell right into my trap and opened The Polar Express first. Maybe the best Christmas story ever?

The second tradition we started is trekking it to the mountains and cutting down our own Christmas tree. It was so much fun and we have loved having a real tree in the house this year. Emily was sick that day, so we took Brooklyn and Gracie along for the ride and a good time was had by all.

 This picture was taken right before the tree fell on Brooklyn and Garrett. Don't worry--nobody was hurt and it was by far Brooklyn's highlight of the day.

 Greg actually had a really great time, but made sure to give me a dirty look when I asked him to smile for the camera. Somebody's getting moved to the naughty list...

 I just realized I don't have a picture of the decorated tree. I'll have to take one and post it later. Our library tree is prettier with glittery, matching ornaments, but this one is our family tree full of homemade ornaments and memories. As my mom likes to say, "Every ornament has a story." I love it!

Speaking of ornaments, that brings us to our last new tradition. We took the kids to the store and let both of them choose their very own ornament. I am hoping to do this every year and think it will be so fun when they are older to let them pull out their own box of ornaments and take a trip down memory lane as they hang them on our tree.

Abby chose a princess ornament--no surprises there! I just realized I didn't get a picture of it hanging on the tree, but it is darling and so perfect for Abby this year. When she is 20 and pulls that ornament out, I know we will smile and laugh when we tell her that she spent every day dressed as a princess and Daddy and Garrett got to take turns being her "Prince Phillips."

I was somewhat surprised when Garrett chose this Snowmonster ornament from the old "Rudolph" movie. I really thought he would choose the Jake and the Neverland Pirates ornament, but he fell in love with this little guy and was determined it was his ornament, so we went with it. It's not what I would have chosen for him, but I do smile every time I see it hanging on the tree. He is so sweet this year and so excited about Christmas. I hope I will always remember how much fun this season has been with him when I see this cute little Snowmonster in future years.