Christmas Traditions

I have some fond memories of some of our family traditions. Staying up on Christmas Eve to open our presents at midnight. Who doesn't like staying up all night to open their gifts, anyone, anyone?....

Our mom would make us our Christmas stockings filled with treats and oranges, and nuts, we loved it! I also remember being in the kitchen making tamales with mom, my sisters, and any other woman in the house. We would all have our jobs, pressing the masa, filling it with meat, wrapping it up and putting it in the pot. But my favorite was all the talking and singing and dancing. It was so much fun.

Since becoming a mom I have my own traditions that I have started. Now because it is so time consuming I have not picked up on the tamale making and my kids let me know they are not happy with that. Oh well, what can I say...

I did stockings a little different, I put cute little gifts in them and had our kids open them up on Christmas Eve. I would also usually buy a game and that would be the one gift they could open Christmas Eve as well, and we would play that night, so fun.

One tradition that I enjoy is finding new ornaments for the tree. I like to add something new, so every year I pick something out that might have special meaning to us.
I also love that Sky and Solee contribute to our growing ornaments, for they send us something homemade, and I love it! Thanks Wendy and Malen for that gift.

I hope now that our children are grown with their own families that they will find their own traditions to add to our families.

Though this past month has been pretty stressful, I love this time of year. I am reminded why we celebrate Christmas. Our Savior's birth...

I hope that with all the stress of shopping, driving in this awful traffic, wrapping that last gift, or forgetting to eat cause we were just too busy, that we take some time to reflect what this season is really about. The love, the joy, the peace...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!