I think every year my excitement for the holiday season grows exponentially. I remember as a kid being really sick every Christmas Eve, and I guarantee my "sickness" was nerves and excitement for the coming day. I even asked Bryan last week if I could start decorating the house with Christmas stuff (he vetoed that quickly).
Oh my heavens, just thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas right now gets me all giddy. Geez, I'm a grown woman (sort of), you'd think I'd have some control? But not really. I'm as crazy as a little kid waiting for Santa. And speaking of kids, I think having three of my own now makes Thanksgiving and Christmas so much more fun and exciting, especially now that the older two really are understanding the whole holiday concept. I'm excited to start new family traditions (maybe venturing out to cut down our own Christmas tree? possible caroling - probably not) and excited to continue family traditions (decorating cookies for Santa, decorating the tree together). I want to take Rix and Bryce on their own special shopping trip with Bryan and I to pick out something for their brothers from them. I'd take Cole, but he wouldn't get it - maybe next year. I want to do some service too so the boys understand that there are kids out there not as fortunate as them, and heavens knows my boys need to learn a few lessons in gratitude. No really, they do. And every year I say I am NOT going to get up at the crack of dawn and endanger my life and sanity to shop Black Friday deals. But who am I kidding? Now that I have an accomplice in the form of Carissa - and Lindsay and my mom if I can drag them out of bed! - I will for sure be up at 3 am on Black Friday to snatch some great deals.
I have already begun stocking up on baking supplies for making lots of treats. I've dog-eared recipe books and pulled out recipes for cookies and cakes and goodies to make for friends and family (and me) to eat. But I am so overwhelmed with all of it too. Our budget is waaaaay smaller for gifts this year. I channeled my inner Christina and I already got a few presents starting in the fall (shopping early really does pay off!) for the boys, but I'm no where close to being done. So please help me lower my stress and lend me your thoughts!
I am in need of a few things (besides money and a bigger kitchen, both of which I asked Santa for. C'mon! I've been sooo good this year!).
What holiday traditions does your family have? (Only share your traditions if you are willing to possibly let me steal your idea for my cute little family).
What traditions would you like to start?
And most important, what do you get little boys (ages 5, 3, and will be 2) for Christmas??? You'd think I'd know the answer to this one, but seriously. I tried gleaning clues from things they asked for, but while watching TV or reading the Toys 'R Us magazine, they literally ask for everything (unless it's pink, in which case they insist Olivia needs that toy.).
I hope you all are excited for the holidays this year! If not, I'm excited enough for all of us!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Hurry Up Christmas!!! I'm (im)patiently waiting!
Posted by Celeste Pearson at 1:42 PM
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9 comments:
I never really thought about the traditions that I want to start. I think its so awesome you are already thinking about Christmas :) It's going to come so fast this year! I can't imagine doing the whole Black Friday thing. Where are you going to go? How do you even find deals? We can't wait to see you guys over the holidays!
It's never a bad thing to channel your inner Christina. In fact, it is always ALWAYS a wise decision! I think you know all of our traditions.
In Holland, for December 5th (Sintkerklaas) they disguise presents (i.e. hiding them in potatoes, wrapping in a really big box). And then they write a poem poking fun at the person they are gifting.
You can always tell your boys if he's bad Swarte Pete (Black Pete--he's black because he's a chimney cleaner)will take him away in his bag.
Try making gingerbread houses--they're much easier than they sound!
Good luck on your search. As for boys: Austin loves dart guns and his remote control car...
I am now SUPER excited, and feel way behind. I think I want to come and spend the next 2 months with you. We don't really have a lot of traditions yet with our family. I do want to start some this year. Thanks for the post to get my brain thinking.
Man, we must be related...
I've already gotten all the boys Christmas shopping done, just need to get one more thing for Aubrey, done with Josette and mom and dad and partly Carissa. It's nice to get the presents out of the way so we can focus on everything else, right?
As for traditions, I like that you are taking the boys out separately for a night of shopping, mom and dad did that. Also, don't forget stocking stuffers on Christmas Eve! Jage's family as a buffet on Christmas eve with rolls and meats and veggies and cheeses and treats and they snack all night while doing a nativity and opening one present. I love the buffet. We're also doing cookies, a gingerbread house, and we'll probably do something for my clients at work.
As for presents for the boys, we got the boys some Imaginext stuff. Since right now they are more about how much they can open rather than what they opened, we were going to wrap a bunch of little things, like matchbox cars or dollar store puzzles too, otherwise they'd only have a few things to open. Stick with boy things, cars, action figures, etc.
We haven't really started any traditions since every year we are at someone's house for Christmas, and then last year we were 4 days from having a baby so we were a little lazy! But here is what we want to start:
1. I'm stealing your idea of taking my kids out to get presents for each other and spend some quality time with mom and dad. (We should totally switch off babysitting for that!)
2. Decorate graham cracker houses (because my kids won't eat gingerbread)
3. Tell the nativity story the night before and leave hot cocoa and cookies out for Santa
4. Bake yummy treats for every one!
5. Decorate the tree together, although I doubt we'll cut our own again this year since last year was such a disaster!
I would stick with a few presents you KNOW that they want, then some smaller ones you think they'll like. Kelli is right, at this age they are happy just opening presents even if it isn't the most exciting thing in the world.
This year I am also talking to my kids about service, and how some kids don't have any toys, so we are going to go through all their toys and they will help pick some out to donate to a shelter or something.
I love all these ideas. Now I wish that Christmas was here already. I am one of those wacked out crazy gals who goes shopping starting at 0300 on Black Friday. Ever since Sarah was teeny, I have braved the weirdos, crazy weather, and Wal Mart to shop till I am done. Every January I restart my Christmas account at the bank. I put money into this account every payday. They won't let you take the money out until I think November, so it is safe from stupid purchases throughout the year. I only pay cash for the things that I buy which really helps me spend wisely. I start with a list sometime in September and STICK TO IT. Since my kiddos are not so small anymore, we generally will give them something to wear, something small that they have asked for, and then we do an "Experience" together as a family. Another thing we do as a family starting on December 1st is read the book of Luke. There are 24 chapters so it works out great to finish right before Christmas. Try it..it doesn't take too long to do at night either.
Hey Celeste,
Here are a couple of traditions that I do with my little family. :)
On the evening of Dec 5th, we leave our shoes/boots outside the front door. Sometime during the night St. Nikolaus comes and fills the shoes with candy, books, etc. This is only done for good kids, the naughty ones either don't get anything, or are taken away in his big black bag. :)
We pick a day to decorate our tree, and then once we are done we have a picnic under the tree. We normally do subs, chips, fruit, sparkling cider, and some kind of dessert. It's a lot of fun.
We read the story of Christ's birth on Christmas eve, act it out, or use these puppets that I made to act it out. Just depends on who's with us. :) It's a lot of fun.
Good luck!!!! I feel all giddy about the upcoming holidays too. It's SOOO fun when the kids are finally old enough it GET IT! lol
Oh yeah, as far as gifts for boys. My boys are TOTALLY into the transformers right now. I've heard that Sam's club has a AWESOME transformer that has several dudes that connect into one huge transformer for like $40. I'm sure Costco probably has something like that. I'll be checking them out tomorrow. :) Can't go wrong with Thomas the train stuff, cars, legos, etc. :)
Celeste, Ive been addicted to your deal a day sites that you posted a while back and Ive found some pretty cool things there that Ive ordered so first of thanks for the tip!
One year we got one of those big tubs I want to say its the 5 gallon size (if this exists! haha) Anyways it was red and green and it had the lid that kind of connects in middle so the lid cannot be lost and it was totally filled with legos and that was a HUGE hit with all 4 of us.
A tradition I need to start with my own family is that my mom has these orniments on her tree that are little boxes that open and everyone has their own (even though I dont live at home anymore every now and then I will go to their house and I will have notes in mine) and my mom and dad write notes to us each night. We take turns writing for mom and dad and sometimes the notes are silly and other times they make me cry, last year my mom wrote Brian a note about being thankful that hes the man that we deserve and that shes thankful to have him in her life as well and it made me totally cry! I keep my favorites. But I think my mom should start a book of some kind for each person to store their notes in that can either be kept with the christmas stuff and pulled out yearly or to be left out through out the year. I think if it was me I would pull them out at christmas. But then you can see all of the notes over the years and if you and Bryan helped the boys start drawing a picture for in your boxes they would be kind of cool to look back and see some of their early drawings and their handwriting when they were 5, 6, 7 etc. Its a really sappy tradition but its great. Oh! And it starts on December 13th.
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