Favorite Christmas Traditions

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King!

Let every heart prepare Him room,

and heaven and nature sing,

and heaven and nature sing,

–putting up the Christmas tree the Friday after Thanksgiving (however, this year we put it up the weekend before Thanksgiving as we were traveling over Thanksgiving break)!

–putting up outside Christmas lights together!

–our baking day with the Herrings (which was Saturday)!

–Lego Advent Calendar for Zach and daily surprises for Ali!

–spending an evening sipping on cocoa and coffee as we drive around enjoying other people’s outside Christmas lights, listening and singing to Christmas music!

–celebrating Christmas–this will be the 3rd year–at our home with my brothers and their families on the 23rd, and having the VH Gorkows spend the night!

–Ali and Zach get to choose one gift to open sometime on Christmas Eve day!

–spending Christmas Day at home, opening presents in the morning, making a special breakfast and a mid-afternoon dinner together, and loving family time ALL day!

–enjoying Candy Cane Hershey’s Kisses!

–enjoying Peppermint Mocha and Pumpkin Spice creamers for my morning coffee!

–dimming all the lights, snuggling under a blanket, and soaking up the beautifully lit Christmas tree…how it illuminates the whole living room!

–reading, together as a family, the Christmas story from Max Lucado’s book, An Angel’s Story!

Since the Christmas season is for a short time and only comes once I year, I cherish our traditions. 🙂 We may even add new ones this year! Above are pictures of Zach’s Lego Advent Calendar. Each day in December until Christmas he opens up a door on his Lego Calendar and inside is a new Lego person or small set. We started this tradition when he was just a little boy, and have continued to do it year after year. I wonder if he’ll want to discontinue this tradition next year since he’ll be a teenager…I certainly hope not! 🙂