In my family, we have lots of traditions, especially for the holidays. There are special things we do on Halloween (like watch "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and Garfield's Halloween Adventure before leaving for trick-or-treat @ 6 pm), Easter (hiding Easter baskets, receiving some sort of "gun," mostly Nerf, from my Dad) and Christmas. There are many traditions that occur on Christmas.
Here are a few of my favorites:
- Christmas eve occurs at our house - with a beautifully cooked meal by my mother. Then we travel to church @ 6 pm and head to my Uncle's where we do Christmas with my Dad's aunt's and uncle's. Lots of presents to be had. My Aunt Wilma makes the most stellar pepperoni rolls in the world.
- Baking cookies - this year we made about 12 dozen. M&M, chocolate chip, peanut butter, Reese's cup cookies and cut-out cookies. We're pretty serious about the cut-out cookies. Like I'm talking picking out all the yellow sprinkles and outlining the Bells with them. Serious stuff. Only to then be eaten by a young child who doesn't appreciate the art. :)
- Christmas morning - The rule, laid down by the parentals, is that we are not allowed to wake them any earlier than 7 am. I think this time will bend now that we're all getting older. Once one sister awakes, it is her responsibility to wake the other four sisters. All together we sneak into my parents room and line up around their bed and sing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" at the top of our lungs. No presents are allowed to be open until ALL family members are present around the tree.
- Snowflake making - yes, we make tons of paper snowflakes each year and then hang them from the ceiling creating a winter wonderland. I'm not so hot at making them, but I try. This year I created a Harry Potter lightning bolt scar one. It's awesome
One of my favorite traditions is Christmas Eve morning. This year my Dad outdid himself. How will he top it next year?! Each year, my father enjoys waking us up early on Christmas Eve morning with a song from the Polar Express (the title track I think - where you can hear the train). Anyway, this morning @ 8 am, I was awoken by the sound of a train in my room! My Dad had spent an hour before he had to leave for work, wiring speakers from the main stereo in the living room to each of our bedrooms to play the song! Each room sounded like it had it's own train! HAHAHA. It was great. Each sister woke up, most likely groggy and grumpy, but was filled with a sense of quiet joy and appreciation for our family and for Christmas. It was fantastic.
So those are some the traditions in our house. I'm sure there are many more, but today I'll only bless you with those ones!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!
