Traditions old and new

Well, my camera battery is dead so it's charging, which means I can't get pictures on here tonight. (and I need to do a blog before it gets too late, since there ARE only 2 days of Nablopomo left, (well, one more after today, really) and I'd hate to screw it up now!) So...tomorrow I'll post my crafting adventures and today, I'll reminisce...

Holidays.

Love, love, love them.

If there were sound to these photos, what you would hear is "Whoooa!" "Oh Woooow!" Needless to say, they like the lights.

As soon as Thanksgiving ended, I knew, even as a kid, that Christmas was just around the corner. Now that I have my own kids, I think about traditions we created when I was young, and I think about ones I want to pass on to our family. These are some memories that have stayed with me...

1. Shopping at Santa's Secret Shop at school, buying earring trees for my mom and mugs for my dad.

2. Going to the Christmas Tree Lot and picking out our family's tree.

3. Decorating the tree with all kinds of ornaments. Memorable ones include...my dad's famous snowflake, a felt ice skate I made with a paper clip blade, a clay jelly bean jar we made and painted

4. Hanging tinsel on the tree..(do people even use tinsel anymore?)

5. Making Christmas Tree Breads with my mom

6. Spending Christmas Eve with our good friends the Williams. We always did a gift exchange and spent the evening there, until we were so tired that all that followed was getting home (one house away) and falling into bed to wake up to Christmas!

7. Opening one present on Christmas Eve...

8. Leaving a plate of cookies and milk for Santa.

9. I remember watching holiday movies..particularly that old claymation 'Frosty the Snowman', and 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer'...as we got older, this sort of grew into National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which I can honestly say I think I've seen at least 100 times.

10. Wrapping presents. I have always loved wrapping presents and I can remember hiding away in my bedroom with a pair of scissors, tape, wrapping paper and boxes and just wrapping away...

11. Stockings! We'd set them out on Christmas Eve and wake up to our stockings first thing! We always opened stockings first! But we'd all sit and look at all our goodies at the same time. The stockings were somehow my favorite part...

12. Then presents. Usually my dad had a cup of coffee in hand, and either Mary or I would be in charge of divvying out the gifts under the tree. My mom ALWAYS had a camera in hand, which I appreciate even more now, because we have all these memories to look back at now.

There are SO many more things I remember and loved about the holidays. And as an adult, I am amazed at how many are still important and how others have changed.

Now, just the 'feel' of Christmas makes me all giddy. The day Starbucks switches to the Red Christmas Cups, I do a little dance of joy...

When Target puts out their Christmas Stuff I leap for joy!

Decorating my own house....I want to feel all warm and cozy and I want others who come to my home to do the same...I also want it to be Childproofed, so Ceramic Santa will have to stay outa sight this year.

Buying Christmas decor. I love it. I just have to keep in mind what things are enticing to little ones and then NOT buy that.

Decorating the tree...the top 1/3 of the tree anyway and watching the kids stand back and say "Wooow! Oh wow!"

Getting our stockings hung and dropping silly little fillers in as I find them at the stores.

Eggnog. Gotta have my eggnog. This year I watched 2 of my babies share a glass of eggnog each with their own bendy straw. Super cute.

Buying for others. Funny how that changes as you get older. You really do appreciate the gift of giving so much more. Particularly fun shopping for 3 babies. (er, toddlers).

Christmas movies! Favorites? National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Serendipity, Home Alone 1, 2 or 3, A Christmas Story, Elf, The Family Stone...and now, some Cartoon's thrown in for the wee ones.

Christmas Eve shopping at the mall with my dad. Harder to do now that we have to split time between both families, but still a fun tradition. Yes, I said Christmas Eve. As in, the day before. Crazy? We might be, but it was just a fun tradition to partake in, watching all the people frantically run around trying to find the perfect gift!

Holiday Music. Just hearing it makes me happy. Watching my kids dance to it makes me even happier.

Making my own Christmas Tree Breads...my mom taught us well. (Though it's still fun to bake them with her)

Aaahhh....Christmas. Can't wait.