I love the entire month of December! We have so many traditions that help us focus on Christmas. I love the spirit of the month. My favorite tradition is baking all month preparing to take treats to our friends: poppy seed bread, butter cookies, sugar cookies, toffee and fudge. Next year I need to remember to take pictures of all our treats when we go Christmas caroling. Watching Hannah in the Nutcracker has been one of our December traditions. Hannah was in the party scene, a rat, a Snowflake and a Russian dancer this year. She has been in this production since she was 6. Next year Esther gets to be a mouse!
We love watching the ballet and the music puts on in the Christmas spirit.
A tradition at our elementary school are the Christmas decorations. We are blessed to live in an area where we can go to a public school that allows Christmas decorations! These two pictures show some of the things in the hallways that are put up over Thanksgiving break. We have a wonderful custodian who spends four long days decorating the entire school! I didn't take a picture of the ceiling which is filled with stars hanging down throughout all the halls. It is wonderful to have that Christmas spirit at school.
Another tradition: Baking and decorating sugar cookies with our friends. Each year the kids invite a friend over to help. We get creative and delicious cookies!
New church clothes for Christmas and a picture in front of our wonderful tree. We pick out our tree the Monday after Thanksgiving but this year they were closed and we had to go on Tuesday. The kids were upset that we couldn't stick exactly to our normal tradition. But it turned out fine and we decorated on Tuesday.
I need to take a picture of all our Nativities around our house. Esther loved playing with all the different sets. One day I found the Nativity in our entryway had 4 baby Jesus', 3 Marys, and countless Wise Men. Everyday Esther would rearrange and play with the various Nativities. It was great to see her recreate the story of the Savior's birth throughout the month.
On Christmas Eve day we make Gingerbread cookies to give to Santa. This has been our tradition for years mainly because none of my kids really like Gingerbread cookies and will leave enough for Santa to eat!
Our Christmas Eve Nativity is another favorite tradition. We act out the Nativity while Scott reads the Bible. Then we sing Silent Night and the kids take turns playing their Christmas piano pieces.
Every night during December we read a story and scripture about Christmas and sing a Christmas hymn before family prayers at night. Christmas Eve is then Luke 2 and Matthew 2.
After our Christmas Eve program the kids get ready for bed. This is the only night of the year my kids are eager to go to bed! They brushed their teeth in record time. All 5 sleep in Noah's room downstairs. They played games and talked. Finally lights out at 10 but I could hear their voices throughout the night. This is their big sleepover and they love it.
