Christmas Traditions

I've been tackling a LONG list of things I'd like to get done before the baby comes in JUST three more months!  The blog is somewhere on that list and hopefully I'll eventually get caught up!  Leevi is in and out of town (mostly OUT) until 3 days before my due date, so I shouldn't have any excuses of not having any free time in the evenings.  We had a relaxing holiday without too many plans knowing that we'd be Daddyless over the next few months.  I'm having such a hard time getting things accomplished now that I can't imagine how far behind I'll get with a newborn!  A lot of the things have to do with the upcoming move at the end of the school year and sorting through things now while I'm free and before the 3rd trimester exhaustion kicks in!!!

Christmas traditions are something that I can't say we've done every Christmas since Hailey has been born but now that she is old enough to remember years past I'd like to develop that nogstalgic feeling of the holidays!!!!  There were a lot of ooo's and ahhh's when we unpacked the Christmas boxes and a lot of "I remember this!!!" 

Christmas cards....these are definitely a MUST every year (we have one saved from the last 10 Christmas's since we've been married that I hang up each year...the MAIN reason why I do them!)  I also added this year a string of Holiday Artwork from years past from the girls that get packed away in the Christmas boxes...

I also do a photo ornament each year of the girls...they get a special alone picture from their first Christmas and the following years, a together shot!  On the right pictured below is a Hallmark Memory Album that we've done since Hailey was 2 and Kai was a newborn.  It's 10 years worth of a memory page about the holidays and a 15 sec recording.  I make a collage of about 15 favorite pics from the holidays to glue to one side and write specifics about that holiday season on the other.  It's really cute to hear the change in their voice from year to year.  They must have played Hailey's first recording from 2008 at least 100 times...she said "Happy Christmas Pretty Princess"  I don't know why she said that!  But it's really cute! 

We started the Gingerbread House tradition last year.....

We started the tradition of making "Christmas Trash" (aka Puppy Chow or Garbage) at least 5 years ago when we moved into our new house in Hawaii...a lot of the neighbors exchanged goodies!  This mix of Crispix, Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Powdered Sugar has to be saved for a special occasion otherwise we'd make it all of the time and be huge! 

Her eyes are closed intentionally on the picture on the right as she was savoring her bite!  :) 

We didn't make it to see Santa this year!!!!  He doesn't come to Germany...they do St. Nickolas on the 6th (a post to come eventually on that!!!!)  We could have driven to Heidelberg one day to see a Santa that come to their post, but Hailey didn't want to go.  She said that he's not the real Santa and since we have our own personal elf (Snowy) then she didn't need to tell him what she wanted!  :)  Ha!!!  I only wanted to go to have a picture for my collection!  :)  The picture we had last year was pretty lame anyway....nothing like the Mall Santa's in the States!  We tried not to put a lot of emphasize on Santa this year anyway.  We talked a lot about the Reason of the Season and did an Angel Tree and donated old toys to an orphanage and things that revolved more around family and Jesus than PRESENTS!   Hailey made a couple of comments over the holidays that shows she's really getting it!  As we were putting the tree topper on the tree she explained to Kailee the significance of the star!!!  My heart was proud!  :) 

Our tree stumps from each of our first Christmas's (guess we'll need to go back to a real tree next year!), the yearly Santa pic (and Snowy, our elf!), and this year's advent calendars!

Each year they also get matching Christmas pajamas...this year I opted for more of a Winter theme to get more bang for my buck!  They wear them throughout the holidays but specifically on Christmas Eve/Morning!  And they also get matching Christmas dresses (which for the past two years I've been lucky enough to find on clearance now for next year...still looking, but it's a bit trickier this year considering I have to coordinate an infant without knowing the gender!!!)