Welcome to Company Girl Coffee!
This week Rachel Anne had me thinking about HOLIDAY TRADITIONS.
I have to admit, I think I have been kind of lacking in that area. I hear of all these neat ideas for a tradition and I think, "I want to start doing that" but then I never actually make it happen. But I did think of one thing that we have done every year for at least the past 4 years.
Make a gingerbread house.
I'm not talking real gingerbread, just the easy graham cracker stuck on a milk carton kind of gingerbread house. Above is Christmas 2004, Will was 3 1/2 (sniff, sniff) and Wyatt (not pictured....did we let him partake in the decorating that year? Maybe he went to bed early....) was 1 1/2. I always look forward to this fun activity. We get a ton of different candy, put on some Christmas music and go to town. I love watching my kids creativity and their different personalities emerge as they decorate. Let me tell you, watching your child decorate a gingerbread house will tell you a lot about their personality!
We talk and take our time. Last year they boys got so creative. They did the whole gingerbread house and then added a yard complete with a hill of snow, a sled, a lamp post and trees. All while Anna was busy shoving candy into her mouth! A lot of times this tradition will fall around my birthday (Dec. 17) and so that makes it extra special.
It's funny because this tradition just kinda happened! It first started when we were given a gingerbread house "kit" and we just took it from there. I think we are sticking with this one. I'd love to see my boys as teenagers decorating a gingerbread house!
So what about you? What's your favorite holiday tradition? Please share!
8 comments:
what a fun tradition! have a great weekend.
- joyce
http://www.xanga.com/joycelau319
What a great idea! Keep it simple, that's what I say! I may have to steal the idea. : ) It's kid friendly, and I LOVE kid friendly! (With 5 of my own.)
Have a great weekend!
-Melissa
This is a really good idea. I think Emma would still be shoveling the candy in, but maybe I would be surprised.
Last year (Emma was 3), I let her help me wrap gifts. I put tape on each of her fingers and then she handed them to me when I said, "Tape." It was so fun.
We do the gingerbread house too. It's so much fun. We have expanded the tradition to include friends and made it part of our Christmas party. Each child invites a few friends, we back cookies and decorate them as well as the house. It's a yummy way to celebrate :)
One of ours is M&M cookies. The few years I haven't baked them for whatever reason, truly broke my mothers heart!
Love it! What a great tradition. What I've found is that some of the things I tried so hard to make happen never really "took" and the things that were happy accidents became our favorite memories. Our cookie decorating used to be so.much.work. FOR ME. Everyone would run off after like 3 cookies and leave me staring at 6 dozen naked sugar cookies to frost. It evolved to be a fun tradition and friendly competition that we enjoy immensely.
That is a cute picture....he has really grown!
A fun tradition. We did this last year with a group of friends.
Love the candy eating part of that tradition...Yum.
We go to the Singing Christmas Tree right after Thanksgiving - before we get to busy and when we can just take in the music and the real story behind all this Holiday Hoopla. It sets the stage for me, my mom and Daphne (gotta be 4 before you go:)
Happy Thanksgiving Button Fam
Post a Comment