Thoughts of Christmas Traditions

Good Morning!

I hope everyone has slept well. Had a wonderful time out with a friend last night and am so blessed with a sweet husband :o)

Sitting here with the family asleep, the Christmas lights glowing, listening to the winter storm watch and just feeling very content and blessed. And getting very excited for Christmas!

I love this season, anticipating the excitement on my children's faces. I'm loving the traditions we are making with our children (like my parents did with me and my brothers).

The best memories of my childhood Christmas':
- Hanging our stockings up on the stairs and my mom having each of us "pose" by our stockings
- Waking up really early and me and my brother "sacrificing" our youngest brother to our parents (each year we would tell him to go wake Mom & Dad up knowing 1)He would do it & 2) He would be told to go back to bed) LOL -Sorry Bill!!
- My mom always put crazy stuff in our stockings - the most memorable for me: glow in the dark rubber frogs; oh! And the Eyeballs!!!
- We would always open up our stocking with my mom but would have to wait till Dad came down the stairs before we could open the other gifts under the tree. And Dad wouldn't come down till the coffee was ready! (Sadly, I think it took us till high school to figure out to make the coffee before we did our stockings!)

Now it's mine and my husband's turn to start the wonderful Christmas traditions and memories. As my parents did with me, the first and foremost thing that we hope our children take away each year is that Christmas is about the Birth of Jesus and He is the greatest gift of all.

Other traditions we've started:
- Christmas Eve service
-One gift for Christmas eve: PJ's and a book
-The kids and I get up in the morning and wait for Daddy to open the stockings - each stocking includes one Stuffie that sits on top :o)
-Daddy puts on his Patriots Stocking Cap, and takes pictures as the kids open their stockings and their "big" gift from Mom & Dad :o)
- After that we wait for the grandparents; put their gifts under the tree; Daddy starts the turkey and we finish the opening of the gifts!

I'm so excited for Christmas!