Christmas Traditions

Living overseas, away from family has really made us figure out which Christmas traditions we want to carry on in our own little 3 person family. :) Christmas is a favorite holiday, and it's great to be able to share with family and friends when we are home, but being able to share it with just us three makes it wonderful too.

Our first tradition is putting up Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving, we can't wait any longer, or I would have us put them up December 1st.

One of my family's traditions was doing puzzles at Christmastime. Well this Christmas I have bet (kinda, 'cause I'll just get one of my own 3 Musketeer bars) Spencer that I will finish every puzzle we have, which is 12 in total, before Christmas day. Most are just 500 pieces, so easy, I can do three in one day. But these 1000 piece ones are giving me some troubles. I need more puzzle people in this house too, because Tyler doesn't like it, and Spencer has lost any interest in it.

Can you tell I take this seriously? Tyler took this without my knowing.

The next tradition is writing our letter to Santa Claus. This year Spencer was able to write his own, and he had quite the list, but there is one thing that he REALLY REALLY REALLY wants this year, and he's hoping so badly that Santa will bring it to him. (it's a marble maze construction thing, where you see the marble go from the top to the bottom)

The next tradition lasts 24 days! We have this book my mother-in-law gave us one year, which has a scripture of Jesus' birth, a Christmas hymn, and then a Christmas story for each day before Christmas. So we start it on December 1st, and this year we have really stuck with it. It's a great way to keep in mind the real reason for Christmas.

The next tradition kinda just happens. We get SO EXCITED for Christmas around here. We can hardly stand it! We love being able to care for others during this time, and be loving and kind and thinking of others. It's just so EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lastly, our best, yummiest and most delicious tradition is Monkey Bread on Christmas morning. This is the one tradition I love most, but the sad part is, Africa (both Congo and Zimbabwe) doesn't have buttermilk biscuits. Yes I could make them, but that adds one extra long step to an already long process. :) So, needless to say we can't wait to get back to the States to be able to have more!

I love Christmas traditions, and one more we have is our annual Christmas Letter, which will be up here next. We have many other traditions and one that I also love is that we give Spencer an ornament every year for something that happened that year. This year he got a Bear dressed as a Buckingham Palace Guard from our trip to London. It's fun to keep all of our fun memories alive with his ornaments.

What are your favorite family traditions?