Christmas traditions

We have only all been together at Christmas as a family for two years but I think we already have established some routines that will turn into our family traditions.

The first is the 'getting of the tree'. We agonize over the perfect tree, cut it down and then drink hot cocoa or cider and nibble something sweet to warm up. Living in the state that supplies most of the rest of the country with Christmas trees, we have plenty of places to get reasonable a priced tree. This year we went to a family farm just around the corner and picked out an eight foot noble fir for $15. I suppose the trimming of the tree is part of this tradition. We have more lights and decorations than can really be put on a tree (according to me) and so we must select a 'theme' to decorate the tree. This year we went with traditional Christmas colors.

We also have 'family shopping day'. The main focus is for the kids to get gifts for each other. Last year we just went to the outlet mall, handed out money and met up after a couple hours. This year, we increased the budget so we asked the kids to have a plan for what to get for each other based on lists they all made and then figured out what stores we needed to get to. We had the added excitement this year of doing our shopping in the biggest snowstorm I remember in 15+ years. The roads were fine (for anyone who's ever driven on snow) and best of all, hardly anyone was out because of the weather so we made it through all gifts in about 4 hours and 5 stores. Not too bad!

The other thing I like that we do is that we only open one gift at a time. It makes for a relaxed opening of presents and we all interact together while presents are being opened. We pick the order by Ro-sham-bo (or rock-paper-scissors).

We did something different this year with opening presents because of the kids schedules (we were all together the first part of winter break and then on Christmas morning they all went to the other parent). We started opening gifts about 3 days before Christmas Day. One family gift one day, then one gift for each kid (our choice) the next day, another per kid the next morning and finally on Christmas eve we opened everything but the stockings. Bruce and I didn't divulge the specifics of the plan but the kids knew we were opening early. Suffice it to say that the opening of presents depended on the cleanliness of the kitchen and that Bruce and I didn't wash a dish for four days. I personally thought that was fabulous :)