We've enjoyed having a Christmas countdown letter board in the kitchen this year. Olive has been practicing her numbers and checks it first thing every morning.
Our tradition has always been to do a North Pole Breakfast on December 1st to welcome Christmas to our house. This year Dec. 1 was a school day. So instead of making our school morning crazy, I opted to plan our special breakfast for Dec 2nd. The kids didn't know the difference. It was a lovely, relaxing morning at home and I'm so glad I did some editing to our usual traditions. I also changed my usual breakfast plan and picked a menu of their favorite things instead of going to the trouble to make something homemade. They were THRILLED with tree cakes, powdered donuts, milk and m&ms. I was thrilled to special 5 minutes putting their best breakfast together.
Our North Pole Breakfast includes:
Christmas book for each child
Fun Christmas food
Christmas candy
Christmas pjs
Christmas ornaments for their tree
Usually Olive is the first one to spot a fun holiday breakfast, but this year it was Fletcher. He dug right in to the food :) They were so excited for their new ornaments and books.
I penciled in a fun Christmas parade to our schedule last weekend. I figured it would be fun to see. Well we ended up playing outside and raking leaves all afternoon so when dinner time came around we were all exhausted. I scrapped the parade plans, changed into our pjs and we just enjoyed a quiet evening at home. No one missed the parade.
We also travel to see family on Christmas so Santa comes to our house on Dec 22 or 23. We do all the usual things - reindeer food, cookies for Santa, etc. We just have him come a little earlier so we can enjoy a quiet Christmas at home with our family of four. I'm guessing we'll have to continue to edit this tradition each year as the kids get older. It might get confusing for Santa to arrive early, but for now it works for us.
What traditions do you edit for your family??
I love the North Pole breakfast! I might have to add it to our calendar next year for us big kids. haha. We definitely edited our Christmas last year with our wedding and being out of town, but we had a blast. We are coming up with plans to celebrate our anniversary. We have a few family Christmases lined up before and after Christmas. I am trying to start some traditions, like our annual Christmas ornament, mailing Christmas cards, and I want to bake some goodies to give to our neighbors who have already blessed us with cookies. I guess the important thing is no matter what we plan, what goes wrong, what goes right, etc. is that we have our families and we celebrate the best gift of all, Jesus.
ReplyDeleteP.s. I put your Christmas card in the mailbox today! :) So glad we exchanged addresses!
Such fun traditions friend. I have loved to have ones that have stayed the same through the years and others that have changed as the girls have grown. We always do a North Pole Breakfast too. But ours is never on the same day. I need to pick a date for this years. I was actually thinking of the last minute and doing it 12/23. But I may bump that up a weekend.
ReplyDeleteOurs was almost opposite....this year we didn't do our North Pole breakfast like we have done a couple of years in the past. My oldest didn't even miss it at all but I was kind of bummed that I couldn't get it together this year. We did make it to our local hometown parade last Saturday and it was a big hit with both of the kids! It was the first time in a few years that I had even gone to that parade so it was fun for me too. We opted to just do a numbered countdown to Christmas instead of our usual big advent board with treats for the kids on each day. That was just too much for me to get organized this year. Once again my kids have pleasantly surprised me and haven't asked about it but one time and I told the oldest that we weren't going to do it this year. He understood and I think the newness of the numbered one we are doing helps. Of course that pesky elf is still hanging around. ;)
ReplyDeleteYou always have the best holiday fun! We went to a parade and all 3 of us wished we would have done something else :) But in the end, it was a fun car ride to and from and we made fresh memories.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post! I have an 18 month old and a baby due in a month, so we have had to scale some things back this holiday season, but it has still been completely magical!
ReplyDeleteI love all of the fun things you do for the kids!
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