Christmas traditions

I think most families have some sort of holiday tradition. I have heard of several different ones ranging from Christmas caroling together, acting out the nativity, and I know of a couple of families that get new PJs every Christmas Eve.

Growing up my family had a couple of little traditions. One was cooking hot dogs in our fire place on Christmas eve. This apparently transpired because one year (before I was born) there was a power outage and my family improvised a holiday meal. After that they decided to do it every year. I remember LOVING this growing up and it wasn't because I loved hot dogs, it was the sense of family bonding I felt. I have never heard of any other family doing this and so I felt like it was something that only our family could understand.

My mom and I also started making homemade sugar cookies together. It was fun cutting out the shapes and putting the sprinkles on together and of course I am a huge fan of the finished product. I remember one year I was away from my family on Christmas. Instead I went home with a good friend of mine and spent Christmas with her family. I had mentioned to her in passing that I missed my mom and was disappointed that I wouldn't be making cookies that year. My sweet friend surprised me by buying me some cookie cutters and offering to stand in as my mom that year. It was such a thoughtful gesture and definitely made me feel like I was at home.

Now that my family is spread out and we have started families of our own we don't get to spend every holiday together. Which means no more hot dogs or sugar cookies, but my mom has started a new tradition that I really enjoy. She makes us all homemade ornaments. I look forward to getting these every year. I would say her ornaments make of 95% of the decorations on our tree. I just wanted to show you the ones that kevin and I got in the mail this year.

Kevin's family has a tradition of having their own stocking with their name sewn on. I was very excited to join in and this year I received my very own stocking. I think it is so cute so I wanted to share what it looks like. I have never seen a stocking with little stockings on it. Also, since we don't have a fireplace, Kevin's mother gave us these cute little stocking holders that we placed on our book shelf.

I just wanted to say thank you to our moms for giving us such thoughtful gifts!