Christmas Traditions

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Literally as soon as Halloween hits I get this tingly feeling in my belly and the countdown to Christmas is on. Who needs Thanksgiving anyways! :) 

I love seeing everyone's posts on social media this time of year too - it just seems like everyone is so festive and happy for the most part. I also love seeing and learning about other people's family traditions. Growing up we spent Christmas at home and it was literally my favorite memories of childhood. I still vividly remember many Christmases and although we didn't have a lot of money growing up - Christmas was always a big deal. I remember barely being able to sleep Christmas eve. We would have a get together at either our house or Grandma's with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle John, Aunt Marrianne and Al and my family. We never had a proper meal - just tons of delicious appetizers and lots of homemade cookies and candy from Grandma! We would have ham salad sandwiches, weenies and meatballs, buckeye balls, fudge, and cinnamon pinwheels. I can literally taste it all right now.

Then we would head to bed with the tree empty of presents. Santa came at night only after we went to bed. I remember being so excited I couldn't sleep and eventually I would drift off and wake up sneak out into the hallway and depending on the time Santa had either come or not. Surprisingly I never caught my parents in the act of putting out all the presents nor did I ever find the stash! When I finally tiptoed out of my bedroom and saw literally a tree full of presents it was time to alert the masses. I would rip through the house waking everyone up and we would get up at the crack of dawn - call Grandma and Grandpa and they would come over - then we would spend the morning opening presents and eating donuts or biscuits and gravy. It seriously to this day makes my heart happy.

Then we would play with toys, nap, and watch 24 hours of a Christmas Story on TV. Then we would have Christmas dinner at Grandma's and drift off into a food induced coma. I remember being sad on Christmas night going to be because that meant it was over for another year.

Chris and I have spent the last several years wondering if it would be our last Christmas just the 2 of us. Even last year - at 23 weeks pregnant - we didn't take it for granted that we would have a little one this year. I can tell you I have no doubt that this will be the most amazing Christmas yet. My fond memories of Christmas make me want to have a house full of babies and a huge family so I can give them all the fun memories and traditions that I grew up with. Last year was probably the last Christmas I will spend in Gas City for a while as we want Casey to wake up in his house, to be able to tiptoe down the stairs and see all his presents and all the fun that's associated with Santa coming to your house - and it definitely was bittersweet last year. Christmas is always about home and family and I'm just so thankful that my mom, dad and brother will be here with us this year. We will also get to see Chris' family and for that I'm so very thankful. We will miss my sis in law Ash but completely understand!

About 48 hours before Christmas we are still debating which traditions we want to have in our household. For me - no presents went under the tree till Christmas morning and then most all of them were from Santa and they were all wrapped. For Chris he had some from Mom and Dad but then Santa came Christmas night and brought unwrapped presents - say what? So most of Casey's presents are wrapped and under the tree now and they say from Santa but this is the only year I will put them out this early. As for whether they will be wrapped - that is still up for debate…

The Christmas tree is another debate in our house. Chris had a mismatched Christmas tree full of sentimental ornaments - I had a matchy matchy tree with a theme and a color scheme. For now I have one tree that is my matchy matchy and one that is a mix of the two - all of our sentimental ornaments with a bunch of ornaments and ribbon that also match - I'm sure over the years it will change!

And the final tradition we are still debating is the Christmas Eve meal. As I mentioned for us it was always just heavy appetizers - for Chris a nice meal. This year we will be doing both - some appetizers and then a beef tenderloin! It's fun to think about how our traditions will grow and evolve over the years!

I can't wait for Christmas - as cliche as it sounds we have been incredibly blessed this year and I seriously cannot believe we will be waking up Christmas morning with our little miracle! Merry Christmas everyone - I hope it's the best one yet! I'll leave you with some of my favorite Christmas pics throughout the years!

XOXO

K