Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Christmas Tradition Ideas

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The Christmas season is often filled with traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation. If your family doesn’t have Christmas traditions this is a great time to start! Traditions will give your child great memories and something to look forward to year after year! Here are some of my favorite traditions.

Before Christmas

With all your family members present set down and make a list of your favorite Christmas carols, and download them to a CD. This CD will be very enjoyable when you are doing other Christmas activities such as decorating, making cards and cookies, or just driving around town.

Another fun activity during the Christmas season is advent calendars. In recent years these have become harder to find, but local schools typically sell them at the start of the school year as a fundraiser. Another option is to make your own calendar. I took a solid red piece of fabric and cut out 24 little squares; on the squares in green fabric paint I stenciled one through twenty-four. Then I sewed the squares onto a holiday themed piece of fabric stuffed with baton. I then took some brown fabric (for a chimney) and stuffed it with baton and sewed it to the top of the calendar with Santa coming out of the chimney. If you don’t want to use candy for each day you can put Christmas bible verses in for each day, or make a marker and use it to count down the days to Christmas.

The first weekend in December buy construction paper, markers, glitter, glue, stencils, and anything else fun you can think of. Spend the day with your child making Christmas cards to send to friends and family. When you take a break have some hot coco with marshmallows, or whip cream and have a traditional snack which you make each year. My family always makes chex-mix muddy buddies before we start making the cards.

If your child is older decorating the Christmas tree together can be a fun activity. After Thanksgiving my sister, cousins, and myself help my Grandmother decorate her tree each year. Buy one beautiful ordainment that you make a big deal out of putting on each year. For example we have one ordainment that belonged to a great-great grandmother and each year a different child puts the prized ordainment on the tree.

The Friday before Christmas set down with your child and help them make out their Christmas list. Don’t feel uncomfortable about setting down rules about how much is on the list or the value. That Saturday or Sunday go to local mall (or where ever Santa is in your area) to visit Santa. You can also have pictures taken to put into a Christmas photo album. After visiting with Santa take the kids to pick out Christmas presents for grandparents, and other family members.

Christmas Eve

A fun Christmas Eve afternoon activity is to make Christmas cookies. If the your child is older have them help you mix up the batter. Well they are cooking have some hot coco and watch traditional Christmas movies. Once the cookies have cooled decorate the cookies with frosting and sprinkles for Santa. This part may get messy but it will be a lot of fun and make for great picture opportunities.

A good tradition to start is going to a local Christmas play. If your child isn’t old enough to be in school yet call your local elementary school and find out when they have their pageant. Another option is your local church!

On Christmas Eve we were always aloud to open one present early however it was always the same present, pajamas. We would get all ready for bed, grab a few blankets and drive around town looking at the Christmas lights and seeing if we could catch a glimpse of Santa. When we got home we would set out the cookies we had made earlier with a big glass of milk and carrots!
At bedtime on Christmas Eve read a Christmas themed story together. You can either read the same story each year, or you can buy a new story year after year. If you’re giving a new book year after year a good time to give it is with the pajamas.

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~Welcome~

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Childhood: I grow up in a small, small town in Maine. And when I say small I mean SMALL no more than 200 citizens. My parents divorced when my sister and I was very young, and has had a lasting effect on us.

Education: During high school I hated school. The main reason probably was in order to get to the school on time I would have to get up at 530. My senior year I went to the technical school, where I received my CNA license. I started college twice but never finished, the first time was because I didn’t know what I wanted and it drove me nuts, and the second I got pregnant. Once my son starts school though I plan on returning to school!

Multiple Sclerosis: In April 2006 I was diagnosed finally with Multiple Sclerosis. My freshman year in high school I started having problems with my legs and falling quite often. Luckily that was the only issue I had encountered until I was a senior. My issues continued until the fall of 2006 when they started to spin out of control. At work my legs would give out, I would black out, becoming easily confused just to name a few. The doctors started running tests and conclude that everything was fine. In February I was watching Strong Medicine on Lifetime and it was an episode about Multiple Sclerosis and I was in shock it was like they had been following me around for the past few years. I called the doctor’s office the next day and she told me at I was just being a hypochondriac. I called back later that day and talked with her partner who made an appointment with him later that week. I went for an MRI and didn’t hear anything for a few months so I was like well I guess everything was fine! Then I got a call, they had lost my paperwork and it turned out I had a three lesions on my brain and I was being set to a Neurologist.

Relationship: I have been in a serious relationship with Josh since 2005. I have never loved or cared so much for someone (other than our son) in my entire life! With everything that has happened in the past few years, and the majority of people would have walked away. Josh and I have not yet got married, or even started talking about it. The topic makes both of us nervous considering our parents past relationships, and are afraid of history repeating itself

Motherhood: I have a son who was born on March 12. He was a totally surprise, but I couldn’t be more happy about it. I am so lucky to be able to stay home with him and watch him grown and change every day. There is nothing better in this world then the look on his face when he realizes that he can do something new, or when Thomas the Train comes on.

Politics, Social Issues, and News: My favorite thing in the world following current events. I am for the most part a conservative person occasionally towards the left. I love talking with people about these issues, even if we do not agree. Knowing both points of view is very important, because you can’t make an informed choice based on half the story! I believe half the problem in the USA is that people just make assumptions, and decisions based on a 20 second commercial, or what information they receive from ten minutes of news!

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