Traditions.

Christmas is just around the corner and I am eagerly anticipating being back home with my family. I have been looking forward to going for quite sometime now and as it draws near I gleam with excitement! It is going to be so delightful.

Christmas has always been pretty huge in my family. I want to clarify  by huge I don't mean mountains full of presents - although some years there were - I mean we did things and they were big, important, HUGE. We made traditions as children and we continued them. I hope that we are able to create the same exciting atmosphere in our household with our wee one.
It all started at the beginning of December. We would take the decorations out from the attic and we would decorate the tree, there would inevitably be an argument at some point about what should go where and which of our Angles we wanted on top. In the end though, we were all happy and we had a beautiful tree. This year my little sister, the youngest, worked hard to decorate the tree all by herself as there are only two still living at home and Paul was not that interested. I am excited to see how she put it all together.

(As per usual, we always had to make at least one snowman)

The rest of our traditions besides the random making of cookies with mom, and the drinking eggnog with dad, fell on the 24th. It started by going to Church and watching/participating in the live nativity play (or whatever show the Sunday school decided to put on that year), followed by the candle lighting and ending with desserts. We would then drive around as a family and go to the places with the best lights. By the time we got home the Fire Stations Santa was just driving past and we would all wave as he past by our windows.

The late evening was my favorite part. The first year this started by my mom giving all us kids BIG boxes, and we all decorated them to look like a Christmas village and we fell asleep in them in the basement watching Christmas Specials. It has changed a wee bit since. Unfortunately, we can't all fit in boxes anymore. Now we buy a bunch of sweets, head down stairs in our Christmas PJ's and watch our new Christmas Movies (we each get a new one every year) while trying to fall asleep in the basement as our parents wrap gifts upstairs.

I am so excited to join my brothers and sisters this year and can't wait to start creating our own traditions with the wee one next year!

What are some traditions that you have with your family?