Christmas Traditions

Every year the hubby and I try to accomplish Christmas traditions to be able to share with our growing family. With our big announcement that we posted yesterday we have kind of fallen off the tradition wagon. I get home and by the time dinner is made all I want to do is sleep. I have been desperately trying to keep the holiday spirit alive.  In true holiday tradition the hubby lugged all our holiday decor up to our apartment the weekend after Thanksgiving. It seems like we are getting gypped on a week here and maybe the tree will stay up until after the new year. Honestly it most likely will. Haha. We took our bokeh shots and even made a GIF of us putting up the tree. We always have such fun decorating together. Then we had dinner and watched both of the Home Alone movies.....only the ones with Maculay Culkin count people! Our pup laid on her bed pouting because of the cone of shame the entire time. Poor thing.

Poor conehead pup!

We took a break for the week because I was wiped after doing just the tree so we finished the rest of our decor the next weekend. We had an unusual cold spell last week and it made me feel incredibly bad for our pup. So I decided to put her in a t-shirt to "attempt" to keep her insulated. The dog hates clothes which is why she doesn't have a sweater, but I think she might get one this year from Santa.

Also every year, with the exception of last year....the hubby and I paint a craft. We usually go to a ceramic pottery place like Color Me Mine but this year we decided to make something at home. It's going to be a little special Christmas gift that you should stay tuned for!

The Bear was our holiday craft from 2008

I think that it's wonderful that the hubby wants to make something together every year with me as a reminder of each year we are together. I love that we can continue this tradition with our children as well! What kind of Holiday traditions do you have?

Day Four - Tradition

It's tradition in our house hold to set up Christmas decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving and then have a movie marathon of our two favorite Christmas movies. The Home Alone series. I still chuckle to this day at the antics that ensue in both of these movies (realistic or not!) This year we reversed the order and watched the movies first, but hey...we still watched them the weekend after Thanksgiving! Teehee

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25 Days of Xmas

So I don't know whats been wrong the past couple of years, but my love for the holidays has been downplayed a lot. So in an effort to kick up my holiday spirit I have decided to do try and watch as many Christmas inspired movies as I can, bake cookies, and decorate, create, and wrap pretty presents for my loved ones. We already decorated our apartment and have watched both Home Alone movies. (tradition in our household to watch those the weekend after Thanksgiving) I have started some projects for presents, and have almost finished my list. Now to find pretty paper and wrap it all. So since I am almost done shopping I guess all there is left to do is enjoy the season. So that's what I'll do.

Photography challenges have been sort of a fad in my opinion, but I saw this Christmas inspired list on Pinterest and I figured I would give it a shot. Come back daily in the month of December for a little photo of my Christmas photography inspiration. I will also share some favorite holiday memories and give you a glimpse at my tree and some of my favorite ornaments. You know, those ones that make it onto the tree every year! And holiday tidbits along the way.

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Santa had a big heart this year!

Every year it seems that Christmas comes earlier and earlier. This is because big business decides when they are going to begin the advertising of their Christmas sales. This holiday has become so commercialized that many people seem to forget the real reason why this holiday is so special. From Thanksgiving through the new year is supposed to be a reflective time about your life and the people you chose to spend your time with. It is a time for celebrating wonderful memories with your family and friends. While it is always nice to receive gifts, the most important thing to me is quality time spent together and the month of December has been just that.

Darin and I have decided that we need to start our own traditions as a family that I have outlined in previous posts (Tis the Season - Decor, Cards and Clocks , Christmas Cookie's) along with our tradition of painting a ceramic piece. Those traditions are relatively old (considering we have done them every year since we got married and we haven't been married that long, so not too old I guess) so my best girlfriend Hope decided that we needed some baking therapy. She called all the girls over to her home for a baking frenzy day. She even had her fiance John go get supplies for this massive girls day. What I mean by supplies is a 25 pound bag of flour and like a heart attack supply of butter and various other needed items. Granted he went to Sam's Club so it was the only thing available, but you would have thought that we were going to start our own bakery. It was pretty funny. We had some pro bakers (Hope, Shannon, and myself) and some newbies to the trade (Amanda and Sam). Many different styles to make the cookies were utilized including using hands as a mixer! We had snickerdoodles, brownies, Black Eyed Pea cookies, sugar and like 6 different cookies that Hope made. It truly was a blast and we giggled a lot while listening to Christmas music. Alas we had very dirty hands so I forgot to take pictures of this classic moment in our lives, but it will be a memory that I will have forever. I propose to my girlfriends that this be a tradition every year!

The week after this was the week of Christmas and we went to dinner for Miss Hopa's birthday. The Anthony's, The Ransdell's, The Kimball's and the Basher's-To-Be went out to Piccola Trattoria in Canyon Country for some yummy Italian food and wine. We enjoy celebrating any special occasion and you throw in good food and wine and we are there! The evening before Christmas Eve, The Ransdell's, The Basher's-To-Be and us went out to celebrate the holidays at Backwoods Inn. A favorite restaurant in our group of friends. We had a wonderful visit and exchanged some gifts between friends. It was a wonderful beginning to our holiday celebration, as we all described our holiday plans, the Ransdell's planned to go to Jamaica from the 25th through the 3rd. We are all jealous!

Since Darin and I have been living together it has been hard to get around to spending time with my family on Christmas. Between Darin's work schedule and the weather it has been nearly impossible to actually see them and spend quality time with them on Christmas. This year was going to be different. I was very excited that Darin got transferred to a branch that is closed on the weekends so we made plans to got up and spend Christmas with my family. We went to Darin's family and spent some time with them and his grandparents. Exchanged gifts then packed up our pup and away we went to the country. When we got to Tehachapi, my mom was dressed in her holiday sweater and we were greeted with one of her awesome hugs. Shelby was so excited to see Grandma that she jumped all over the place, until she saw the platter of cookies on the counter. Then she focused..."How do I get one of those?" I helped set the table and put out the food, made our traditional salad, and poured the wine (with the help of my parents neighbors Bruce and Kristen we went through 5 bottles!). After dishes were done and all the food was put away we all jumped into our matching pajamas's and settled down to watch a movie.

Christmas morning came fast and I awoke rather early at 730 and nobody else was awake. I guess my parents aren't spring chickens anymore and the night of laughter and wine got to both of them. I grabbed a glass of water and planned to go back to sleep for a bit when I looked around for Shelby. I couldn't seem to find her, even though I heard the jingle of her collar. She had pushed her way into my parents bedroom and jumped onto their bed to wake them up. I guess she couldn't wait to open her gift from Santa! When everyone finally made it out of bed, we opened our goodies. Darin received a new camera bag, a new video game that he had been wanting and various other goodies. I got (2) cake plates, I guess my mom and Darin didn't chat on what they were going to get me! Hehe. Also a new electric blanket from Shelby (because she chewed the cord on the other one) and a new pan set! I guess I can start cooking more because I have the proper hardware now! My dad got a Wii! After everything was opened and Shelby was satisfied that there were no more gifts for her, Darin went straight to the task of setting up my parents new Blu-Ray Player, surround sound a Wii up, while my mom and I made brunch. The rest of the weekend was spent with long walks around the area, movies on Netflix and of course playing the Wii. 

I had a wonderful holiday and couldn't have asked for a more perfect Christmas. Thank you to everyone who  celebrated with us and we can wait to do it all again in 2011!