Christmas Traditions

it's so different being married and having to combine traditions, but fun to start new ones. i don't feel like jeff and i really have that many traditions together because we've never had christmas alone at our home. this will be the first year without my nana's tamales. tough, but i'll survive. i also think more traditions are established once you have kids. am i right? and not kids like sofia's age...kids like elementary age. we can still wrap sofia's old toys and get away with it.

anyway, here are traditions i'd love to start. i thought i'd write them, so i'd have a place to refer to it when i actually start them.

*decorate tree on December 1st (i'm against doing christmas things in november)

*Jeff insists on putting up the lights the day after thanksgiving because he'll have the day off, but we WON'T turn them on until dec. 1st)

*make treats for neighbors and have the kids deliver (really so i don't have to be in the cold :)

*write letters to santa and send in the mail (maybe i'll mail them to my mom because she'd make it happen)

*find streets with the best lights and take a drive with the kiddos

*open one gift on christmas eve- (always new PJ’s- this is a tradition in my family)

*12 days of Christmas where you have 12 things written on a card and then every evening you pick the activity for the night (baking, craft, christmas story, letter to santa, make ginger bread houses, ice skating, christmas movie (must include elf, the grinch (Jim Carey one) home alone 1,2, and 3 (because jeff LOVES home alone), etc)

*donate to or serve a family in need

*leave cookies and milk out for santa and a carrot for the reindeer

*if we don’t have a fireplace or chimney make a Santa key to let Santa through the front door. Get an old fashion skeleton key, spray paint it gold, tie a ribbon around it, then put it on a wreath so Santa can come inside and bring gifts

*Christmas Eve: caroling to neighbors, sing christmas hymns and drink hot chocolate at home by the fire, write a letter to Jesus and receive the letter you wrote from the year before)

*Christmas morning- read the nativity chapters from the bible

Oh how i love me some christmas time. it's just a different feel in the air. 

pb

who doesn't like it? seriously. add it to apples. add it to bread. eat it by itself. i'm talking peanut butter here. sofia just started eating pb. i add it to her whole wheat waffle or make a pb and honey sandwich. the only problem is that she opens the sandwich, licks off the pb, then eats the bread (at least she eats the bread, right?).

what a dear.

sofia is kind of attached to me. i'm really trying to teach her to play independently. she doesn't freak out, crying, when i leave a room. she just follows me. which makes it really hard to do anything. ANYTHING.

yesterday morn i was having one of those mornings where i just needed 15 minutes to call my doc's office, go to the bathroom, and eat some breakfast. anyway, she was following me, but wouldn't stop whining. so before i lost my patience/mind, i stopped, bent down to her level, and talked to her in a "serious" voice: "sofia mae. i need you to stop whining, stop following me, and just give me 15 minutes to work on a few things." she looked at me seriously, hugged me, patted me on the back, then kept her head on my shoulder. so i took her to her crib (even though it was 2 hours before her nap). she played in her crib, quietly, for about 20 minutes.

what a dear.