Establishing Traditions

Don’t get me wrong, I have fond memories of spending Christmas Eve with my parents and siblings. But now we want to establish traditions of our own. We still incorporate some of our parents’ Christmas customs, but do throw in a few of our own… like going out for Chinese food. It has taken a couple of years, but Mason is finally OK with eating sweet and sour chicken with fried rice. (Our son's reason for eating Chinese food: because it's what Kung Fu fighters eat.) We made it especially fun and exciting by bring “training” chopsticks for the kids to use. Thankfully no one got hurt, but there were a few close calls. Mason and Morgan started their own tradition of making sure Santa starts to lose weight and get skinny. They proposed protein bars instead of cookies. Since we knew Santa and the PJ Elf (will explain later) would not really want to eat one, we modified their request. We placed one cookie and one piece of fudge on the plate accompanied by low fat milk. It was also their idea to write thank you notes to the Man with the Bag for coming to visit them. Next was sprinkling reindeer food out in the backyard followed by reading The First Christmas and Twas the Night Before Christmas. Right as Scott was finishing up the last book, the kids heard jingle bells off in the distance –even Scott! I had left the room during that point and did not get to hear them. (Wink, Wink!) It was the fastest we had ever seen them get to bed! Once they were fast asleep, Santa and the PJ Elf (stole that idea from a twirler mom) dropped off gifts. The PJ Elf placed new pajamas in their room for Mason and Morgan to wear the next day. The only tradition we were unable to establish was attending a Christmas Eve service. We hope to add that next year.

Who's been Naughty & Nice? Hmmm...how will we know?