Holiday Traditions

There's nothing more magical for a growing child than quietly playing Christmas music, a warm fire crackling, twinkling lights on the evergreen smelling tree, and a pile of neatly wrapped presents. Of course, this isn't real life. BUT the traditions can be!

I have so many memories from my childhood of waiting eagerly with my brother at the top of the stairs before going downstairs, waiting for our parents to wake up so that we can go down and get our stockings. I remember the smell of bacon on the stove and eggnog mustaches on all of our faces. 

These sort of memories and smells and feelings are engrained in me from holiday traditions. Now that I have my own family, I want them to have these sort of memories as well. I find that merging my own traditions with my husband's has created a really fun season for us. With Lincoln being 2 and Layla being 1, this year is finally a year that he gets it and can join in on many of our traditions. ​

Christmas Jammies

My all-time favorite tradition that we started when Lincoln was first born has been Christmas or holiday jammies. I absolutely love getting all cozy and weirdly enough my children love clothing so it's a gift that keeps on giving because they wear the jammies all season long. I love taking a family photo in them as well (doesn't even have to be fancy). The photos are amazing time-lapses into our life over the years. 

House Decorating

If we're not outside the day after Thanksgiving decorating the house in multi-colored lights then it's not my tradition! I love getting all suited up, climbing onto the roof, and creating a huge light display that you can see from the road! It's a tradition that my family has done since I can ever remember and I never want to let it go. Lincoln LOVED pulling into the house and seeing the "jolly lights". 

Gingerbread house

Okay, if you haven't seen my time-lapse of Lincoln making our gingerbread house this year, head over to my Gingerbread post. It's hilarious! I've always done one with my mom and often with my cousin, Grace. We love making it fancy, but honestly, the best part about a gingerbread house is eating it all up!

Cookies!

I'm an eater, not a baker. My mom is the baker in the house. This year, we got a sugar cookie kit full of decorating items. Lincoln LOVED making them into snowmen and houses and santas hat. Again, he loved eating them just as much too! My husband's mom is a baker as well so the cookie eating is a big part of our holiday traditions and celebrations.

Stockings first

The best thing is waiting eagerly to get into the living room to see how full your stocking is and how many awesome goodies you got. I shared on my instagram the stockings that I made for the kid's this year! It's hard because I don't add candy yet since they're so little so lot's of books and fun items to play with during breakfast, before the big opening!