Thursday, December 21, 2017

Our Normal (And Not-So-Normal) Holiday Traditions


             Hey folks! It's hard to believe it's Christmas in a few short days, isn't it? I am sure a lot of us are still busy preparing. Speaking of which, I thought I would share some of our own holiday traditions for fun today.

I'm cheating. I couldn't find the picture I was looking for. This is actually from Halloween a few years ago. :P

Baking Cookies

Who doesn't bake this time of year, right? Although I don't do nearly as much year round as I used to, I still love baking certain cookies around the holidays. Since we would all gain like 30 pounds if I baked all the kinds of cookies I like to around this time of year, we don't always bake the same things. Some years we make chocolate crinkle cookies and Mexican wedding cakes (my favorite!), others we might make gingerbread cookies and snickerdoodles.

Picking a Tree

We are real tree fans all the way, so it's always fun going to a tree farm to pick out the yearly Christmas tree. Plus, we use a log from the previous year's tree to...

Make a Yule Log

This is one of my favorite traditions we've adopted since moving to the country. What does where we live have to do with anything? Traditionally, it is meant to bring good luck for the coming year by burning the Yule log. It's a lot easier to actually burn it living in the country than the apartment in town we lived in before. ;) Plus, we're all nature lovers, so it's fun to get Myka involved in helping us pick out nature items to use to decorate our log.

Open a Few Presents Early

In the past, we have let Myka open a small present (or two or three) early for a few reasons. One being that I am terrible about waiting to give people presents. Two, we actually celebrate the winter solstice/Yule, which falls a few days before Christmas, so we let them open a present for that. (We really just do the normal “Christmas” stuff for the kids and because the rest of our families do. We're the weirdos. :P) Finally, we want our kids to appreciate their gifts and we're hoping this helps, as opposed to the whole “open everything at once as quickly as possible” situation.

This is from last year. :)

Cute Picture for Holiday Cards

I used to (secretly) get jealous of people's cutesy picture Christmas cards before I had kids. Naturally, I've totally hopped on that bandwagon since having my own kids. However, I'm a cheapskate and take my own Christmas photo of the kids, hoping for the best, and create cards on Walmart. It is what it is.

I ended up with 109 cards this year!

Christmas Cards for the Elderly

As I've mentioned in several previous posts, I started a tradition last year of making Christmas cards for local nursing home residents. I love being crafty and have always had a soft spot for the elderly, so I feel like it's my “good thing” for the year.

What are some of your favorite winter holiday traditions?
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