Christmas Traditions

I wanted to link up today with ILYMTC discussing Christmas traditions!!

Growing up, my parents and brother and sister would go to OKC and often times meet up with all of the cousins to have Christmas with my Grandparents. Christmas Eve we would stay up late, put on a play of the Christmas story with the many cousins. This is where my sister would demand to play baby Jesus despite the fact that my brother was still "baby" sized. We would leave cookies and milk out for Santa, and carrots for Rudolph (apparently he was the only one who deserved treats). We would stay up late with our cousins, all cramming into one small bed and wait for Santa to come visit. For some reason, I always remember getting an orange in my stocking.

We didn't do the matching PJs, we didn't have any set routine.

But what I do remember?

Is family. Lots of family, laughter, baking and smiles.

Now that I'm married we blend my Christmas with my husband's Christmas. Christmas Eve consists of a dinner with his mother's parents, and a gift swap. He also has set Christmas morning traditions that include waking up EARLY (way earlier than we ever got up. My family may have been excited for Christmas but we didn't wake up early by any means) and going over to his Grandparents house. It is here where everyone MUST sit in the same spot as last year, and you eat fried "mush" (Fried cornmeal--bleh! For those of us who don't partake, there is sausage and biscuits). He said that they would stay here most of the day, play with toys and eventually bust out board games to play.

Our current Christmas Eve/Day routine consists of 4 locations in less than 24 hours. We pack it in! It's exhausting, but I wouldn't have it any other way. For now, this is how we are making our memories!

We were discussing the other day how Santa would leave presents for our kids. In my house growing up, Santa wrapped most of his gifts. At his house, Santa would leave the gifts he brought unwrapped, and gifts from his parents were wrapped. Interesting! We had a debate on how we wanted to wrap/not wrap for Camden this year. I think we are going to adopt his tradition of Santa not wrapping his gifts, and gifts from us will be wrapped.

We are so very excited for Christmas. Not for the gifts, but mainly for the companionship. Family and friends and memories. We don't want to overly spoil Camden, therefore Santa is bringing one gift, and we bought him two or three little ones and a few stocking stuffers.

I honestly can't wait until next year when he's bigger and better able to comprehend things. I want to fully make him a part of buying Angel Tree gifts, and I want to teach him how to drop money in the Salvation Army bucket. I want to teach him that the most important thing is giving, sharing, and that baby Jesus is the reason we celebrate, not the jolly bearded man.

Merry Christmas!!