Traditions

Our holiday traditions are putting up the tree together, setting out our handmade nativity set, and in more recent years has been reading the Jotham's Journey series. We started with Jotham, read Bartholomew the second year, and now are starting Tabitha. These books weave a fictual character through Israel at the time of Christ's birth.

One tradition of Christmas pasts was to make 'reindeer' aprons with the children. Kim, Josh, and Joe each let me trace their hands and feet, then paint them brown to form the reindeer head. They would wear these aprons as we made sugar cookies and when we set up the tree.

The little girls were so excited to find these aprons in the Christmas box. They wondered who they belonged to. I said a special 6 year old, 4 year old, and 2 year old made them...They just can't imagine that their 'big' siblings were ever that size! Now they would like to make some for themselves...

((Remember these??))

Another tradition we've had for the last 5 years was 'Dirty Santa'...I mean real Dirty, trash pile Santa Exchange. We would gather our trash up, wrap it, and gift our dear friends the Elliott Family with it. Thankfully they didn't mind and were wrapping their trash up for us. We each brought our unmarked, wrapped gifts(a rusty old boat, wild pregnant cats, broken computer monitors, and even a few indescribably weird things). Next, we would draw numbers, choose gifts, then steal the 'best' ones for ourselves. All this in the name of Christmas(!)

This year we have decided the game needed new rules AND a new name, thus the Nutcracker Exchange was born. A much more dignified name, don't you think?? We will be exchanging food items, junk food, homemade food, yucky food, and delicious food! It should be a lot of FUN! The best part for us moms?? When Christmas is over, there won't be stuff to store. We'll enjoy eating all the presents, unless it's yucky, I guess.

The girls and I enjoyed another new 'tradition' this year. Our Keepers of the Faith group made pillowcases for the residents of the Sterling House. Each young girl ages 5-15 made one to share. We went and sang 4 songs, starting with "Jesus Loves Me" and ending with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Each girl went around visiting with the residents and giving them their gifts. Our girls were even asked to sing again...Miss K, Miss M, Miss A, and I gave an impromptu concert with "Higher Ground". The residents just cried and hugged the girls, saying this was the best program they had ever had.

Our family has a few more fun upcoming Christmas events, then after settling down for a long winters nap, we'll start looking toward 2012...

May your Christmas Season be Jolly and may you remember the true meaning of Christmas. A babe in a manger who died for you, a lowly sinner. We are blessed!