Christmas traditions

Lilly celebrates Christmas 2010. Gah! Look how little she was!

There are only 17 days until Christmas and my little family and I cannot wait. I've been going through our collection of Christmas storybooks and giving the girls their daily dose of Christmas cheer. And we've also been dancing to a lot of Christmas music. Josh Caterer's The Heart of Christmas EP is currently at the top of our playlist. I love it! This is our first Christmas as a family of four, so I'm in the midst of fine-tuning our Christmas festivities. I hope that one day the girls will look back on their childhood and fondly remember all of the fun traditions we did year after year. We're still new to all of this, but here is what we have so far: 

1. Christmas morning breakfast: This is going to be the first year that we give this a go. The plan is that we will share a nice homemade breakfast after we open our presents Christmas morning. I'm trying to convince Aaron that this is going to be his job. (I mean, I make pretty much every other meal... I think he can handle one designated morning.) I think he's into it. I asked him if he would like a waffle maker so he can make fresh waffles for his girls on Christmas morning. His response: "What about pancakes?" Haha. We're still working out the kinks. 

2. Happy birthday Jesus: My grandma started this tradition a long, long time ago and I totally love it. She usually makes a cake (pineapple upside down cake, in case you were wondering) and we all sing Happy Birthday to Jesus after dinner. Yeah, it's kind of cheesy, but He's the reason we celebrate Christmas, right? Plus, I think it's kind of awesome to put the focus on something other than presents and decorations for a little while. I've decided that I'm going to make some sort of dessert every year and carry on the sing-along. (I'm not going to promise cake every year though. I'm sure a birthday pie will suffice.) 

3. Exchanging presents: Duh! When I was younger, I was totally spoiled on Christmas morning. I'm talking Christmas presents as far as the eye could see. Of course, it was awesome at the time... but looking back, I kind of wish there wasn't such a big focus on the whole gimme-gimme aspect of Christmas. Aaron and I decided that we want the girls to understand that Christmas is about more than just getting loads of toys and new underwear. We decided that this year we are going to follow some guidelines. The girls will each be getting a gift that they can wear, a gift that they can play with and a gift that they need. (Confession... we may have bought them a few little extras, but it's our first year trying this out. We're amateurs! They're only stocking stuffers! Don't judge us.) 

4. Making ornaments: Lilly had such a good time making our clay ornaments last month, that I've decided we should make homemade ornaments every year. We probably won't do handprints every year (those things are surprisingly heavy... wouldn't want the tree to topple over) but we will do something kinda kitschy and fun. Popcorn strings, anyone? 

5. Cookie extravaganza: We are hosting our first Christmas cookie baking party this weekend with a few of our close friends. I'm so excited! I love baking cookies and I love eating them even more. Cookies are an integral part of the holidays and I'm sure this will be one of the easiest traditions to keep. Lilly has never decorated a cookie and I'm positive this is going to blow her little mind.

So, what about you? What are you and yours doing to celebrate the season?