Christmas Traditions...

At the request of me...we have decided to create some family traditions for Christmas. I remember certain things that my family did growing up and knew what to expect. You know, like peanuts in our stockings (even though I never ate them, I still got a stocking full), cereal boxes and juice to go along with the peanuts. My dad would always play "Felice Nave DA" Christmas morning (you know, since we have an extensive Spanish ancestry). And even if we had already been awake for hours (since like 4 in the morning) gawking at our presents and trying to guess what was in them, my dad would have us go back upstairs while he got the video camera ready. Then, we would come out of our rooms as if we had just waken up and act all surprised and excited! We always had a couple of gifts from the dog and the cat, as though they had picked it out and wrapped it themselves. Even though these traditions might sound silly, they were traditions, and we had a few of our own this year.

#1 One tradition we started last year was new slippers, and since the cat peed on Brooklyn's old ones, we decided to keep this tradition. She was very careful this time to put her new slippers away up high. Even Addyson got her own Dora slippers.

#2 Another tradition we started this year was ice-skating. We went on Christmas Eve and the girls had so much fun. You should have seen the size of Addyson's miniature skates. Size 6 toddler. So tiny...It was so tiring for Ric and I to "help" Addyson to skate. She couldn't stand up at all. Her feet would just slide out from under her, but she loved it...Brooklyn just took off; skating by herself and even doing little turns. I had to tell her to slow down. Brynley was a little more hesitant to skate on her own and held onto the edge for the first part, but we helped her feel a little more confident and she started skating on her own too...Both Brynley and Brooklyn were skating pretty good by the time it was time to go. They both wanted to "buy" their ice-skates. They didn't want to take them off. Brooklyn was throwing a fit so I told her to go ask if she could buy them. She did...they said no...but at least she wasn't throwing a fit anymore. I told the girls we would come a few times and maybe have lessons before we bought their own ice-skates. I would love it if they love skating as much as Ric and I do.

#3 So, on to the next tradition...Guitar Hero...Well, I guess this could be Ric's tradition since he played it the whole time this holiday over at my parent's house. Just giving him a hard time...:) I'm glad he likes it, but we are definitely not getting it for us.

#4 Okay, our next tradition we just started this year is on Christmas morning right before we dig into the presents. We wanted to make sure that we remembered the true meaning of Christmas, so we had Brynley tell us the story of baby Jesus. After that, we had a family prayer. We want to make sure we always know why we are opening presents...I don't know why you would even have Christmas without remembering or talking about Christ.

I am so grateful for the memories I have and traditions my parents created for us growing up. Some of those traditions will continue with my family and we will also create some of our own. Even though some of them may seem pretty silly...