Christmas Traditions

I kind of wanted to get down our traditions, and what I want to start, while I was thinking of it, and I saw a poll post on my "Born In" Message Board, so wanted to use it! I also want to record some of Charlie's firsts!

Are you doing anything extra special for baby's first Christmas? Not really. I did buy him a Santa hat and bib that both say "My First Christmas".

Are you having a big family Christmas get together? Traveling? Or just a quiet Christmas at home? My parents are off to California for the winter, so we had our Christmas last night. It was fun. We opened the boys' presents first (most of them, they were kind of out of sorts), then had dinner (steak, baked potatoes, an awesome salad and bread), finished up the boys' presents, then got them ready for bed and opened our presents. We also played Pictionary from some Christmas Crackers we brought back from England.....Oh, 3 years ago! It was fun. Then, we have the Slipka Christmas on Dec 17, but the boys won't be going to that, as it starts at 7 pm. Sun, Dec 19th is the Kelzer Christmas. Then Christmas Eve is just us; Lin and Matt might come over for a bit in the evening, just so I can see one of my blood relatives on one of the days! And Christmas Day we are hosting Chad's immediate family (and probably Grandma and Grandpa Kelzer, too).

What kind of presents do you plan on (asking Santa to bring) for your kids? Let's see, I got Charlie this cute ring stacker, and plan on getting him this crib toy that is a pelican and you can feed him (is pretty cute), some textured blocks and maybe some wooden puzzles. We do this thing where they kids get 3 toys from us for Christmas (not including Santa), to mimic the three gifts brought to baby Jesus when he was born. Chad's cousin does that, and I looked it, since it keeps the presents down from us, especially when there are so many presents from the families. Then for Jack, I got him Superman pj's, a couple personalized books, and I want to get him some bath toys, maybe an easel and maybe a pretend kitchen (or something where he can do pretend play).

Do you have any family traditions that you plan on passing on to your kids? I think we will open all of the presents from us on Christmas Eve, then do Santa and stockings on Christmas Day; that is what my family did. We also drive around one night around Christmas and look at the lights. That is nice. Drink cocoa (boys haven't been into it yet!). We had an advent calendar as kids, maybe since Mom isn't here for Christmas, she would pass that on to me (I made one for Lin last year, so hopefully she won't fight me for it!). No traditions other than that, but my neighbor told me one they did, that I might like to start. They used to put all of their outside decorations up on Thanksgiving, and then let the grandkids turn them on. Maybe we could do a variation of that sometime.