Friday, December 11, 2009

Starting Traditions

Now that Will is a little older and seems to really be getting into the holiday spirit, I've gotten to thinking about little traditions that I'd like to do every year.  First, let me say that I love how he gets out of bed in the morning and the first thing that he wants to know is if it's Christmas yet.  Like we'd let him miss it.  :)

While buying yarn for a baby blanket (not for me) at Michael's last month, I picked up one of those cheapie Advent calendars.  You know the kind--you open a cardboad flap every day to a chocolate surprise.  Not quality chocolate of course, but a little treatsie for my toddler.  Plus, I thought that it would help him continue learning numbers.  He knows 1-10 very well, and can usually get through 12, but when prompted after that I get "there's NO more numbers, Mommy!"  It turns out that he loves the tradition of a chocolate Advent Calendar.  So much in fact, that on the third day of doing it, he sneaked it off the counter and suddenly December 3rd also became December 14, 15 and 23.  Guess there really won't be "any more numbers" after thirteen.  :)

Another day we were in Target and he spied a gingerbread house kit and totally begged for it.  So I gave it, thinking "this could be a fun thing to do together."  My mom saw it on my dining room table one day and strongly suggested that I put it together by myself one night and then decorate it with him the next day.  I haven't done it yet, but I suspect that she is right. 

And of course....the cookies.  We're known for baking oodles of cookies this time of year.  But we've been so busy lately, and with sciatica issues and diabetes, we're really going to cut back.  But, we'll definitely make some roll-out sugar cookies for my little man to decorate! 

What kinds of holiday traditions do you and your family have?

3 comments:

asplashofsunshine said...

Your mom is RIGHT, put the gingerbread house together first. Amidst the cuteness of them, they can be a nightmare.

The Caffeinated Mommy said...

i am loving our family traditions even more this year, now that zoey is three and really getting in to it! my favorites are decorating the tree, baking christmas cookies, and zoey's preschool christmas program, which was totally adorable. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Well, as a kid we always opened our gifts on Christmas Eve because my mom always thought that Christmas day should be about the family and not the gifts. I think she just wanted me to be able to open my gifts early because she was so excited to see my reaction. ;) This is a tradition we've carried through with Callie & Hailey; we go to Nana's & Papa's to open gifts on Christmas Eve.

Other than that, the girls alternate years to put the tree topper on the tree and we always decorate the tree together. So I guess there aren't any pre-Christmas traditions here either. Let me know what you come up with... :)