Our Traditons....

I am addicted to traditions.  I just love them.  One week at MOPS the speaker spoke on holiday traditions and I felt like I might explode.  I wanted to do each and everyone they talked about. :)  Well obviously that is not practical and not even what they are about, so I picked one or two of my favs and added them to some we already did.  I just wanted to make sure I documented them here so the girls could always remember.

* Elf on the Shelf- this we started last year and with Pinterest in my pocket, I was much more creative this year.

Loved watching their faces each morning as they looked for Elfy....

 * Every year, as a gift to the girls' friends for Christmas, we like to invite them over for milk, cookies, and movie night.  Everyone comes in their PJs with a pillow and something to snuggle.  With the addition of church, besties, and now school friends we've had to do a couple of nights the last couple of years.  This year I just could not get my act together and couldn't get a list for Bella's class and ran out of time waiting so we only had Brynn's class over this year.  Previous years I've showed Snowman- a movie my dad LOVES and we enjoyed watching growing up.  This year, though, we showed Veggie Tales' Little Drummer Boy.

yummy cookies!

* Advent Calendar- we have this felt calendar, that my grandma had made when my brothers and I were little, that I was given.  Starting with December 1 there's a felt ornament that represents a different story from the bible that leads up the birth of Jesus.  A couple years ago my mom made new felt ornaments to go with the Jesse Tree Advent calendar since the old ones were starting to fall apart.  The girls look forward to reading our bible story and putting up their ornament every night at dinner.

Oops!  Never got a pic of it but do you see it here in the upper right hand corner:

* This year I made a Advent wreath- I am not crafty but it turned out ok. :)  So we lit one of those on each Sunday leading up to Christmas day and read a devotion that went along it that I got from my MOPS church last year.

Not a great pic, I just cropped a pic of us sitting down for Christmas Eve dinner, but here's the wreath, there is just another candle stuck in the middle.

* Also in the spirit of Advent (lots of counting down in our family :) ) at MOPS I purchased this beautiful book, that the couple that spoke on traditions created and illustrated.  There is a beautiful door to open each day and then has a verse each day from the Christmas story.  

* Nursing home- this was a new one this year but I'd like to make it a yearly tradition!

* We save our Christmas cards we receive each day and at dinner we pray for that family before hanging them up. Sadly I forgot to get a pic of all of our cards up. :(

Here's last year's though:

* We read the Christmas story from the bible before opening presents.  The hub's family opens tree presents Christmas Eve and stockings Christmas morning and my family is opposite, so it depends which family we are with when we open our presents. :)

Daddy read it from his iPhone this year. :)

* Attend a Christmas Eve service

* Give a ornament to each child representing something special from that year- this year each of the girls got a Cinderella castle ornament to remember our trip to Disneyland.

* When we are actually in town- like we were this year, usually we are in CA or CO with family- we always enjoy hitting the Chriskindlemarket downtown.

* Put together our own gingerbread house- Notice I didn't say make our own, yes I purchase a ready made, just decorate one.  I'll leave the beautiful gingerbread house making to my momma. :)

* And another one we started this year, get a real, live tree!!  We were going to cut one down and such but it didn't work out this year, but we hope to next year!

* And I, and my family, like to watch It's a Wonderful Life each each.  The hub's and his fam humored me this year and watched it with me. :)

* Lastly, a new one this year.  I was reading my daily devotional one night and she was talking about how Christmas is more than celebrating Jesus' birth, its also a time to tell others about the good news of Jesus.  So obvious, but not one I really had been concentrating on with the girls.  In her article she shared about giving candy canes to people as you checked out places or your postman or who ever you ran into that day.  I thought I'd take it a step farther and include a little message with each one.  So I attached a tag to each candy cane that read:

Merry Christmas!  

From The Domier Family  

Will you join us?  www.chapel.org   

(I couldn't think of anything better to say, so kept it simple).  Since I was trying to teach the girls about spreading the good news, and it just so happened that their weekly verse from church that week was: Spread the Good News to everyone, I had the girls hand out the candy canes when we would check out somewhere or someone helped us (I would just keep a container full of them in my car and stick a couple at a time into my purse when we were out and about).  They each took turns.  Their favorite part, and this was their own idea, was reciting their verse as they handed them the treat.  It was really special watching them share their faith with others, we will definitely continue this tradition!