Christmas Traditions

At the beginning of December, we sat down as a family and decided which traditions we most wanted to carry on this year.  I didn't want to try to squeeze too much in, but wondered which events were most important to my kids.  Here's what we decided together.

GINGERBREAD HOUSES

Caroline and I made the house-from-a-kit together.

Whitney went with a square house.

B-train chose a traditional house.

Andrew got creative and designed Rapunzel's tower.

MUSICAL CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

LIVE NATIVITY

This was a new tradition for us this year.  (Thanks, Shelley, for telling us about it!)  One of the local churches does a drive-through live nativity.  Very cool.

ORNAMENTS

CLASS PARTIES

I had fun helping out in Whit's class party.  And was IN CHARGE of Brandon's party for the first time in my mothering career.  It went really well...but was exhausting.  Note to self:  don't wear semi-uncomfortable boots to help with a class party.  Comfort is more important than style in this instance!

ANNUAL GIRLS' NIGHT PARTY

I was so happy that we continued our tradition of getting together at Shani's house.

No cookie or book exchange this year.

Just white elephants, delicious food,

and amazing friends.

PRESCHOOL PROGRAM

We have a preschooler again!  So that means we get to watch an adorable preschool Christmas program!

I am a terrible camera woman when it comes to videos.

I was zoomed in too far and couldn't figure out how to fix

my mistake without missing the song.

But you still can feel the Southern flair, right?

We've had so much fun and are giddy with anticipation for tomorrow!