Christmas Traditions

I have been thinking a lot lately about the traditions that make Christmas Christmas for me. I am so lucky to have grown up in a home where we had traditions and made the holidays such a special time in our home. These are a few of the Christmas traditions that have been a part of my Christmas each year.

• The first one that starts off Christmas for me is when we go to the Forgotten Carols by Michael McLean. If you have never seen it or listened to the music I would urge you to do so! There is only one year that I can remember when we didn't go and it didn't seem like Christmas to me. Unfortunately the tickets are getting pretty expensive so I better start saving my pennies or be ok with watching the DVD in years to come-OR I can pray for lower ticket prices-I think I will do that. This year I got to share this tradition with Jared. It was so fun for me and he really enjoyed it! At the end Michael always has the audience sing "We can be together forever someday." It was awesome to be sitting next to Jared and thinking about how this is so true!
• The next thing that I can think of is decorating the house. We haven't ever had a set routine but this is always a fun time when we get out the decorations, set up the tree and each put our ornaments on the tree.
• Each year we get a new ornament from mom and sometimes grandma. They were always perfect for what was going on in our lives and it was fun to try to guess what it would be.
• Christmas eve is always spent with our family, the Martineau family and the Messick family. It wouldn't be Christmas otherwise! We always have soup and rolls! It is always a delicious dinner! When we were younger we would act out the Nativity but in recent years we have just read it out of Luke II. We sing carols and enjoy being together. Every time I hear or sing Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains I hear Noal Messick singing the low notes-even if it is just in my head!
• When we get home from the Messick home (Aunt Sherry's when we were younger) we always have new pajamas waiting for us! We grab blankets and go and look at Christmas lights. When we were younger we would look at lights on the way home then find our pajamas. Some years we are all matching other years we just coordinate-boys and girls.
• On Christmas eve it is the tradition that all of the kids would sleep in Chad's room. There were years when Karissa and I would be on the floor with Chad in his bed. A couple of years he had a water bed and I begged him to let me sleep in it with me. Generally Chad would watch A Christmas Story-I HATE THAT MOVIE! It would be on marathon and he would watch it until early morning hours!
• Christmas morning we would all wake up early and go and wake up my parents jumping on them in their bed. :) They would try to distract us by turning on the TV, seeing if the parade was on or telling us that they needed more sleep. It never worked for more than 20 minutes. Then we would all line up in the hall and go out together to the living room to open presents. We would sort them out and make a big pile of paper.
• After we opened presents and looked at each other's dad would get started on breakfast while mom stayed with us. At some point Grandma would come over and we would show her everything we got. We took the afternoon off and played with what we got or watched movies, took our time to shower and get dressed and just relaxed. Later we would go the Marineau's exchange presents and then all have Christmas dinner together.

I am so glad that I had so many fun traditions growing up and can't wait to use them and start new ones in my future home!

Enjoy the Journey.