Holiday Traditions

This Christmas I reflected alot about Holiday traditions passed down through the years. I think as I get older these things become more important to me. Traditions remind me of my childhood and the many memories of Christmases past. Here are a few traditions that we do each year.....

1. Newspaper doors on Christmas Eve

Sierra

Ryan

My mom use to cover our doorways in newspaper so that she would hear us if we tried to sneak out and peak at our presents before morning. The best part was bursting through the paper in the morning and finally seeing the gifts left from Santa.

2. New pajamas

My mom (Grandma now) gives us new pajamas on Christmas Eve so we look extra cute and clean Christmas morning for pictures.

Cousins: Leif, Lars, Ryan, Sierra, Andi and Nikki

3. "Pull apart" for breakfast

Mom use to make this gooey, cinnamon roll type breakfast for Christmas morning. We now have it too (and for Birthdays)! This is a special treat because at our house we try to eat healthy, well balance meals and this is NOT healthy or well balanced, but it is really yummy!

4. Nativity reenactment

The kids love to act out the nativity scene. At my mom's house they use puppets and at Bill's mom's house they dress up in costumes. They realize the importance of each role and are reminded of the true meaning of CHRISTmas!

5. Gingerbread houses

We love to decorate gingerbread houses. Growing up we did one every year and had it proudly on display all through December. We bake our own gingerbread, use patterns to cut out the house parts and make our own cement frosting. It was always fun to see how much candy we could glop on. Sometimes we would get creative and make trains or trees or front steps, etc. Also the tradition was to eat all the candy off the house after Christmas. By then it's always hard as a rock and you had to use a knife or hammer to break it apart. We never cared.

Traditions

I hope Ryan and Sierra want to carry on some of these traditions to their families and I hope they create some of their own!

Merry Christmas everyone!