Christmas Eve Traditions...or not so much

I am a really traditional person when it comes to holidays. I LOVE some of the things we did as kids in my family so of course I want to do the same. But at the same time, I LOVe hearing about other ideas and if they are good enough....I'll want to copy!

This year was definitely a different year. Our Christmas Eve Day we went with some friends, the DAvis Family, to an Elderly home and sang Christmas carols. It was great! I want to do it every year now! It's just a large home, that has about 10 residents and hides in the middle of a small neighborhood. We had gotten together the previous week to make those Christ plaques and gave one to each resident. We only sang about 4 songs, but it was perfect. Maliyah, who is often very shy around adults was so great to take charge and make sure each of the kids got a turn handing out one of the gifts. I'm so grateful we took advantage and gave that opportunity to serve to ourselves, but also our kids. I hope I can continue to be an example to my children of service. The quality of my life improves 10 fold when I serve others.





Since we were driving to Utah this Christmas I was trying to keep things simple. We always do our big Christmas dinner on Christmas even and although I still wanted to make things nice we decided to ask the kids what THEY would like. I was suprised, but very pleased by their reply. The week before they had had their first in a LONG time TV dinners and that was their request. Could it get any easier?



I decorated the table, had napkin holders and our nice dishes and glasses, then plopped down the TV dinners! Duck and I had a small spread of appetisers that we were munching on through the night so we didn't have to go for chicken strips, but the kids couldn't have been happier!

One Tradition we did keep up this year was that every Christmas eve the kids get two presents to open. A new ornament, and PJ's. The idea with the ornament is that every year they get one, it goes on the tree, but when they turn 18 (or whenever they move out ) they get to take them with them to start decorating their own trees. And when that happens my tree is going to get empty REALLY fast!

Then this year I made everybody Pajama pants and that was really fun for them to open up and see! Pictures of them posted further down from when we were in Utah.





Savannah was just too cute, not to mention it was her first Christmas, so I had to give her a little added attention and pictures on her own!