Christmas Traditions

I love traditions. Traditions of any kind, really, but especially Christmas traditions. We always had a lot growing up, and I love being able to incorporate my past with the traditions Jeff and I are creating for our family.

When we were growing up, we didn't do Santa Clause. Ever. My parents aren't heartless or anything, but they didn't see the point in basically lying to us children. They expected us to be obedient and good without fear of being added to a naughty list, and Christmas was always about celebrating the birth of Christ without commercialism added in. But I never felt like I missed out on anything. We didn't have very much money (my dad was a preacher, my mom stayed home with four kids...you do the math), so we each were allowed to pick one main present that we wanted for christmas and then we always got a stocking (filled with a piece of fruit, a pez dispenser with candy, and other little odds and ends my mom would pick up throughout the year). My mom would stack presents we'd received from extended family members on top of a hutch all throughout the month, and on Christmas eve my dad would don a santa hat (looking back, i really don't know why since we didn't do santa), and the four kids would line up and carry the presents from the hutch (in one room) to the tree (in a different room). It was always so much fun, and we'd shake the gifts and try and guess what we got. We'd put out cookies and write letters to santa (again, it doesn't make sense), and then all 4 kids would sleep in one room that night. The next morning we'd wake up (my parents would give a set time we couldn't leave the room until), and sing christmas carols to wake up my parents. Then we'd wait in the living room until they got there, and we'd first open our stockings. Then my dad would hand out the gifts under the tree, and we'd open those. We actually didn't receive our main present from my mom and dad on christmas because they couldn't usually afford them, so we'd keep our christmas tree up until those presents had been purchased (ususally sometime in february), and celebrate a second christmas at that time. I loved that. It kept the season going well into the winter blues.

I have such fond memories of those traditions, and I hope that we can create new and memorable traditions for our kids as well. Some are borrowed from my side, some from Jeff's, and some we created all on our own. Like, I wrap up 24 christmas books and put them under the kids' christmas tree, and everynight they can unwrap one book to read before bed. We also do the "one main present" per kid, but thankfully we have been blessed where we can have christmas all on one day. We don't do santa at our house, but we talk about who St. Nicholas was and the spirit of that side of christmas. We also adopt a family, and buy presents for them and then have a birthday party for Jesus (early on in the month) in order to drive home how precious His gift was to us and how we need to be His examples, and give sacrificially as well. On Christmas eve we put the kids to bed, and then Jeff and I put on a Christmas movie (we take turns picking - this year is his turn so it could be interesting), and wrap the kids' presents before going to bed.

I know it's a long blog. It's okay if you've quit reading before now. But i love traditions, and I love talking about traditions.
What are some of your family traditions??

thanksgiving festivities

I love my family - both sides. I would hang out with my family or in-laws all the time, if I could. So, this year when trying to decide how to handle Thanksgiving, we decided to celebrate it with both sides. It was great! We had Thanksgiving dinner with Jeff's side of the family in St. Charles MO - the traditional turkey dinner and then the traditional Chamberlain sides (homemade mac 'n cheese, corn bread, green bean casserole) and then did desserts w/my side of the family that evening in Troy, IL (cobbler, pecan pie, turtle pumpkin pie and cheese curls. we try to include cheese curls at every major event). It was so much fun. Jeff's side is notorious for teasing - if you can breathe, you will be teased. And between the 3 siblings, there are 7 kids from ages 1-6, so it's fun watching them play (and fight). I can't really give justice to it, but being with the Chamberlains is always fun. My side is notorious for speaking in movie quotes, or tv sitcom quotes. I pretty much only quote from the same shows or movies because I'm not really a movie kind of person (i don't like to sit still that long), but it's always entertaining listening to conversations and trying to figure out which sentences are original or quotes. we also love to play games. Well, I use "we" loosely - the sisters and my mom like games. The husbands, and my dad do not. My brother can go either way, depending on his mood. So, we played a fun game - Loaded Questions - which had us laughing. Good times.
I spent the night at my sister's, sans kids, and went shopping w/my dad and brother-in-law on Friday - that was fun. I actually didn't do so badly - I had a list, and stuck to it (for the most part). The highlight of my trip was the $50 Bissel steam mop. You know you've gotten old when a steam mop excites you.
But, all in all, it was a fun weekend. We put up the trees (we have two - one for me and one for the kids), i pulled out my christmas decorations, and we watched the neighbors put up christmas lights. I think they finally talked jeff into doing it too, so hopefully we'll have lights up this season. And now we're just counting down the days until Christmas! Yay!