Christmas Morning Holiday Traditions

Here is how our Christmas morning looks – PJ’s!! We might run a comb through our hair… but we all (yep, me too) leave on our Christmas jammies! The kids know the are not allowed to get up before their clock says at least 6am…..we are all usually up by 6:30am

The kids run & look under the tree. They giggle & wonder who is getting the biggest present!! (In this picture Goofy got the biggest – we used tape to put 3 boxes together go get his Playmobil Castle wrapped – I got it for $35 on Ebay!!!)

While the kids are busy looking at the presents we warm up family favorite wassail to drink and turn the oven on to preheat.

Then Daddy reads the Christmas story – it is after all Jesus’ birthday – He is our focus!! With all little ones, Daddy uses a story book with illustrations to help the kids visualize the first Christmas. Some years we have used our Fischer Price Little People Nativity…. others we let them act out the story afterwards. Then we sing a carol or two, pray and thank God for the gift of Jesus!

Then I put the Egg Bake Breakfast Casserole in the oven. I LOVE this simple, easy, assemble-the-night-before recipe from my Aunt Carol!! Who wants to be cooking on Christmas? Not me! It sounds too simple to be good, but TRUST me – it is DELCIOUS!!!

Now it’s time for stockings!! Stockings are kind of a free-for-all and the kids get to just open & go through all their stuff. We usually put in a couple small things wrapped (think Target’s dollar section), a few pieces of candy, lollipop, and maybe a small stuffed animal. My hubby usually gets Pistachios (his favorite – and they are so blooming expensive we don’t get them often!)

This year Goofy just wanted to sort & rearrange the presents - not open. We let him be =-)

December 2010 129_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb

Then the kids are more than happy to snap a quick picture in front of the Christmas tree….after all they know they can’t open presents until Mommy gets a picture =-)

Then we open presents one at a time. I know some families like to just dig in, but I LOVE watching my children’s faces as they discover what we got them!! Priceless!! We take turns and pause to examine or play with things as they are opened. We use to make the kids wait to play with things until the end, but decided we were teaching them to open and move on instead of being grateful for each and every present. It lead to, “Quick….now what” instead of focusing on the gift! So we will stop & play Operation after it is opened. Sure the presents take longer that way…. but who’s in a hurry? Don’t we all wish that moment will last as long as it can?! We pause and eat our breakfast – Egg Bake & Monkey Bread – whenever it is ready and then go back to opening presents. (Can you tell I like to use big boxes – it is more dramatic =-)

My favorite big present the kids have gotten! Minnie got a dollhouse (Grandma found it for us at a garage sale!) and Goofy got a Playmobil Castle (after a year of bidding…. I won it on Ebay!)

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about our traditions! Click on the traditions button (upper right corner of the blog) if you missed any. If you have a fun tradition that I haven’t mentioned, I’d love to hear about it!!

So from our house to yours,