Christmas Traditions.

We have a few Christmas traditions around here, that have evolved over our 26 years as a family.  It's funny because as a young woman I was worried that because of my random personality and outside-the-box thinking and difficulty establishing routines, that I would be completely unable to establish any holiday traditions.  It seems silly, but I think I didn't realize how much the kids help with the keeping of the traditions.  The mom only has to do them a few times and then the kids internalize them and keep them going.  It's great!

We have several things we do.  We put up our tree on the day after Thanksgiving, most years.  Sometimes it doesn't get done that day, but most of the time it does.  When putting up the tree, we put up our little wooden nativity and our Christmas count down thingy.  Usually we hang our stockings the same day, but this year they are tangled up on the string they were on last year and no one has tackled untangling that yet.

Then we have parties we attend, with the families and the homeschool group and events at church, gift exchanges we get in with family and friends, the shopping day, etc.

We also have a list of movies that we watch, our own little eclectic list that probably shares a lot in common with other peoples lists, :-)  Ours include Elf, Home Alone 1 and 2,

The Santa Clause 1, 2 and 3, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (original cartoon), A Charlie Brown Christmas (Original cartoon), While You Were Sleeping (one of my all time favs, I have shared with the kids) and Veggie Tales - The Toy that Saved Christmas among others I can't think of at this time.  :-)

While shopping with the mom's group the other day, at Family Christian Stores, I stumbled onto this!  Six Holiday Favorites,

It's a Meaningful Life

Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving

The Little Drummer Boy

The Toy that Saved Christmas

The Star of Christmas

Christmas Sing-A-Long

Veggie Tales Ultimate Christmas Collection and they have a 25% off coupon this week!   Cyber Week Sale Coupon Code which, yes, brings it down to the price they have it at at other stores, but this store is nonprofit and all of their profits go to charity so it's a win-win shopping here.

NOTE:  I promise that every blog post in the future will not be an advertisement.  I'm just excited about this right now!  

I'm thinking of trying to organize my blog posts weekly, with posts on crafts, homeschooling, medical transcription (my career), family life, etc.  We will see how that goes with my personality, but I am going to try!