Christmas 2010 – Setting the Stage

We are halfway through the month and are really loving the Christmas season this year. A few years back I did some serious thinking about what family traditions we wanted to have and I am so happy how smoothly we moved into them this year.

The tree was up a few days earlier than our designated tree decorating day, I guess we were a little anxious to get Christmas started this year.

Last year I lamented about how I didn’t really like the tree much and made plans to get a new one this year. Well, that didn’t happen, something to do with feeling guilty about the waste I would be producing and so I just couldn’t seem to bring myself to throw it away. I could have donated it but just decided to hang onto it for another year. So while at Target I purchased some big (big only compared to the tiny balls we had in years past) balls and they made all the difference in the world. I love our tree this year. I love the size and shape and with a the extra decorations on it you don’t even notice all the imperfections of the tree. It even has been keeping its needles pretty good this year and I dare say that I will use it again next year as well. Looking at the above picture I am reminded how much my children are growing. I can’t believe that Thisbe is almost as tall as the tree. She past me up last year and even has an inch + on me now. Sigh…

Again this year, I let the kids decorate the tree. We had a wonderful night of watching them make fairy homes, again, and remembering Christmas’ past.

On December 1st the Christmas Countdown made its appearance

I actually forgot about this until the 1st and luckily Dave had the day off and could join me to get supplies to fill it. This year we purchased a couple of Littlest Pet Shop sets and divided them among the stockings. I think this will be the last year all the kids will enjoy the same thing and I think we will have change things up for next year. But that’s how it goes.

Each evening before the kids go to bed we have a little devotional which includes a Christmas song, scripture about Christ, prayer and the opening of the stocking. We just rotate the duties among the kids and it is working wonderfully.

This year I started a new tradition. We are calling them love cups and we will see if it carries on for years to come.

These cups are left out with a little tub of candy and paper next to them. Just a little set up to encourage love notes among us. We are dealing with a lot of sibling false fronts right now and as you can imagine people are getting their feelings hurt. The rule is that you can leave one candy per day in someones cup other than your own. You may eat any candy left in your cup but no others. You can leave as many love notes as you want.

I was thinking that it would be fun to read these on Christmas Eve but I think we will wait until New Years Eve so that we can have a fresh start for the new year. It seems to be working. The cups are already getting stuffed and I have really been enjoying littles notes like these in my cup. I hope that every else is receiving nice ones like these, I may have to peek.

I am excited to see how the rest of the season unfolds.

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