Tradition, Tradition

I love so many things about this season and one of the things I really love is traditions.  I love the old ones that we try our hardest to keep so our kids can experience them too and I love the new ones that we are creating with our family that the boys will hopefully grow to expect and enjoy.

I take a picture by our tree shortly after we get it up and decorated and then have it made into a porcelain ornament.  It is my favorite set of ornaments to put on the tree because I get to see their little faces from the previous years - so precious!  This picture is the keeper for this year.

Another tradition I love is our advent calendar.  I have a very cool advent calendar that has little doors with a magnetic manger scene in the middle.  They open a door each night and there is a character piece inside so that on Christmas Eve we have assembled the entire Christmas nativity.  We also read the Christmas story together when we open the little doors.  When we were talking it about it last night . . 

Me:  So who is Jesus' daddy?

Parker: God!

Me:  So who is Mary's husband?

Parker:  Moses!

(he was channeling TJ's love for Moses - haha)

I am also a sucker for all the old Christmas movies.  My kids love them so we bust those out after Thanksgiving and watch a movie together as a family a couple times a week before bed.  Even my hubby loves the old school Grinch movie or Frosty the Snowman.  

We also sing Christmas songs before bed instead of their usual favorite bedtime songs.  Davis loves this and sometimes asks for these songs year round (which is kind of okay with me:)  Their favorites are Silent Night, Away in the Manger, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing.  

We have some other things that we try to do in the month of December like looking at Christmas lights, making hot chocolate at night and going to Zoo Lights.  I love this time of year.  It is all about Christmas over here!!