Christmas Traditions

I have felt blessed my entire life to be brought up in a family full of holiday traditions that we all treasure and look forward to each year. Before I became a mother, I always thought about which traditions I would want to carry on with my own children one day. Would we make gingerbread houses? Would we eat fried chicken on Christmas Eve? (Yes, I realize this is odd...) Now that we are parents, Chad and I are having a blast coming up with fun traditions of our own to add to the ones we have brought from our individual families.

One tradition that was extremely successful with Gracie was eating chocolate gravy and biscuits for breakfast on Christmas Eve. Chad's Papa always made this yummy breakfast on Christmas morning, but we decided that Christmas Eve would work nicely too. (It lasted for about three days, so technically, we did eat it on Christmas day.) Clearly, Gracie loved eating this yummy concoction as much as Mommy and Daddy do!

One tradition that was not so successful was Polar Express Night. We decided that we would decorate our tree, put on warm pj's, make hot cocoa, and watch the movie. I had never considered how seriously creepy the movie was until Gracie was terrified of it! About a third of the way through, she started screaming and crying hysterically until we fast forwarded to the North Pole. Not the reaction we were going for...

Traditions that were enjoyed by all:

1. The addition of Jack's homemade stocking to our hearth! Gracie liked the train on his stocking way more than the teddy bear on hers.

2. Our Elf on the Shelf. Gracie didn't really "get it" this year, but I think she'll love it in years to come. In honor of Jack, we named our elf Merv. :o)

3. Christmas pajamas

4. Waking up in our own beds on Christmas Day! This has always been a "rule" with my family. I didn't wake up out of my own house on Christmas Day until I was engaged.

5. Christmas baking

Traditions we missed this year:

1. Making gingerbread houses

2. A real tree

3. Christmas Eve services at our home church in Columbia

There's always next year!