It's A, Family Tradition

I love knowing what's to come, what to expect, routine if you will.  It soothes my soul :)  I think this plays into my love of traditions, especially around the holidays.  Growing up, I remember doing the holidays a specific way.  Thanksgiving was always spent at my Grandma & Grandpa Schindel's house in Aurora (we didn't see them as often as my other grandparents, so we always went up there for Thanksgiving).  Christmas eve we went to evening church and then over to my Grandma and Grandpa Snyder's house to celebrate with all of my aunts, uncles and cousins.  It was loud, it was sometimes (probably most times) obnoxious and it was always fun.  Christmas morning we opened Santa presents at our house and by 10:00 a.m. we were on the road to Aurora to celebrate with my mom's family.  I never minded opening presents and leaving, it was our tradition and I was good with that :)  I loved (still do) spending time with our extended family and celebrating the holidays.  My husband shares those values with me.  We are starting to get into our own routines around the holidays.  With my work schedule thrown in, it tends to make for a crazy Christmas day for us.  But we get to celebrate with both of our families and that's what is important to us :)  Leading up to Christmas we have started some traditions around our house too.  Pumpkin is our "elf on the shelf"-don't judge me!

Our elf doesn't get too crazy, no great pinterest ideas here, but the kids (especially Alyvia at this point) get so excited to see where he is each morning.  Pumpkin was too tired to move a couple of nights though, lazy elf!  And we celebrate Christmas with Santa.  In our house, Santa just adds to the "magic" of Christmas (we always talk about Jesus being born and what the true meaning of Christmas is also).  Santa sends an e-mail message to the kids about a week before Christmas (thanks to the portable north pole or pnp.com) and lets them know if they are on the naughty or nice list.  Again, something fun that they look forward to!

Livi anxiously awaiting Santa's verdict!

And of course, we have a mad dash (usually the day before we celebrate Christmas) to make Santa cookies for his visit and reindeer food so Rudolph can find our house!

Oh Colson, "cheeeese!"

It took a few tries, but Livi got the hang of rolling out the dough

Who gave green food coloring to the 3 year old?!

So proud

The finished product

And that night, while it was 1 degree outside, we spread our reindeer food on our front lawn-brrrrr!

I hope my kids look back and remember these traditions leading up to Christmas as fondly as I remember mine growing up.  They'll probably not do a thing because I tried to pack in too much-ha!  Happy Holidays!