The Holiday Season has always held a very special place in my heart, as I'm sure it does with you too for a variety of reasons. But this year is different. It's our first year in Texas. We are close to my family [which hasn't been the case since we got married in 2010]. It's the first year my husband and I will really start our family traditions. I'm hosting Christmas dinner and preparing everything myself [which, if you know me personally, that is a HUGE thing as you don't exactly make Easy Mac and frozen pizza for Christmas dinner... usually]. And finally, it's our first Christmas as a family of three; Jackson's first Christmas!!
Traditions are what make this time of year so special.
When I was little we had a few traditions [I feel like traditions are made because children like things that happen and want them to happen every year from then on...] It always started after Thanksgiving - it was never allowed to start listening to Christmas music or putting up decorations before Thanksgiving. We would always put up our tree as a family. We would unpack the box that had the Santa hats in it first, and everyone wore their respective hats (yes, we each had our own distinctive hat). Then, my mom and dad would take ornaments out of the box and my sister and I would hang them on the tree.
There were so many ornaments. Ornaments one of us had handmade. Ornaments we had each picked out for each year. Ornaments that reminded us of our family vacations. Ornaments that we had always had but didn't necessarily know where it came from. My sister and I each have a 'rag doll' ornament and it became our tradition of throwing her near the top of the tree and letting her stumble through the branches until she found her 'seat' in the tree for that year. And the random ornament that nobody remembers ever receiving that has a picture of a random happy family (you know like those pictures that come in frames). We originally had said we would replace it with a picture of our family, but years went by and we never did so we would make up names and stories of the people inn this picture. After the tree was decorated, we would eat chili and usually watch a Christmas movie or two before heading to bed.
Christmas Eve we were always bursting with excitement. We would always head to church in the evening and sing Christmas carols surrounded by many friends from over the years. After the service, we would stop and grab Chinese food on our way home. When we got home we would eat as quickly as we could our parents would let us. After that we would get to open ONE gift. We never got to choose this gift - my mom would always have it marked. The gift might vary slightly from year to year, but it would always have a new set of pajamas. We would change into our new pajamas and drink hot cocoa while falling asleep to watching It's A Wonderful Life.
Christmas morning usually started with my sister waking me up extremely early (somewhere between 3 and 5 in the morning) and us sneaking into the living room to see what Santa brought that year. We looked at everything - everyone's goodies (not just our own). We made sure to put everything back where it was and we would go back to sleep. We would be woken a few hours later by the smell of breakfast being cooked by my dad. We came back into the living room and acted as surprised as we could so that it wasn't obvious we had already seen all the goodies - our parents always knew it was a show.
After breakfast, we would show our parents what Santa brought and then would come unwrapping the gifts. I would put on my Santa hat and would bring out the gifts from under the tree. We would organize them in stacks in front of whomever they belonged to and then the unwrapping would begin. Because it was always a tough decision about who got to open the first gift, we would always go with who had the most - if there was a tie, then the youngest of those would start [I got to start most years seeing as I'm the baby of the family and my sister and I normally had the same amount so as not to start any arguments].
Even though my husband and I have celebrated 9 Christmases together (6 married), this is the first year we will truly start our own traditions.
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| Pictures with Santa 2016 November 18, 2016 |
This year, we are celebrating our first Christmas as a family of three. Even though Jackson won't remember it, I want to start a routine that will continue to happen no matter where we are.
This year, we have chosen to host Christmas Day at our home. My parents, Ryan's mom, and my mom's parents will be coming over to share in the day's festivities. While I have a loose itinerary planned in my head, I know things will organically unfold. The thing I'm the most nervous about is Christmas dinner! I have never held a dinner party, or done any major cooking for company before. I am a great hostess in my mind, with the table decorations and themed snacks and drinks planned out, but have never had a reason to do any of it before [basically I have a Pinterest board of ideas that I hope to succeed at - we will see if that happens].
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| Christmas Card 2016 |
Wishing you the happiest of holidays from my family to yours
