Thankfully I'm a sucker for tradition, especially Christmas tradition, so we've been enjoying some of our fun traditions as a family lately, despite the fact that they're not as organized. We've been doing Truth in the Tinsel as our advent of choice. This is probably the first year the boys have actually sat and listened to the bible readings and participated in some of the questions we have for them. It's been fun watching them remember pieces of the story and being able to get excited for knowing about key figures that aren't necessarily talked about in the mainstream Christmas jargon. I've also been doing the cheap chocolate advent calendars from Hobby Lobby with the boys. They look forward to the chocolates every morning (even Tyler has learned to point up to the counter first thing in the morning) and even request I read the verse to them all 3 times (if you don't know what I am talking about: Hob Lob makes these adorable advent calendars with little flaps for every day of December leading to Christmas. The child opens a flap every morning and gets a chocolate, but it also has a bible verse that tells of the birth of Jesus. Most days the verses correlate with what we are also reading in Truth in the Tinsel, so I love it because they get a lot of repetition.
We're doing the Elf again this year, and my boys LOVE IT. Cue all of the controversial gasps. Really, I can't believe that we sit around and debate things like the Elf on the Shelf and Santa (and really, a slew of other topics that I don't have the time or energy to list). I get why people do it and I get why people don't do it. At the end of the day, it's really not a subject to get worked up about in my opinion. Unless the person who does Elf on the Shelf or Santa is also beating their child or neglecting them in some way, then I think we should just leave well enough alone and find areas to be unified in, as motherhood is hard enough as it is. That's all I'm going to say about that. ;)
And quite possibly two of my favorite Christmas traditions are the Christmas train and our annual White Elephant ugly sweater party.
Tyler was OBSESSED with the people in costumes. There was live music, and he spent most of the time before the train dancing and going from character to character in awe.
My older boys loved the train sets as usual, but we weren't able to stay near them too long, as Tyler thought the trains were fun to rip off the tracks. We wore our welcome out about a minute before Tyler arrived to the train sets.
Connor wasn't feeling much himself most of the morning. Turns out that he came down with a fever at some point while we were out and about. Poor buddy.
Because Connor came down with a fever, only one of us got to attend our annual ugly sweater party with our friends. It was a super bummer that Drew couldn't come, but I do have to say that, husband or not, I can still rock a jumper like a rockstar ;)
My fellow jumper wearing friends. I about peed my pants anytime we'd start talking. It was just too funny. I highly recommend wearing a jumper to a party. It's sure to bring some laughter. Also, please note how my jumper was a bit ahead of the curve... front pocket large enough for a smart phone. BOOM.
We still have a few more traditions to complete before wrapping up the first semester of Kinder (someone hold me... how can it already be halfway over???!!!) and jumping right into the thick of winter. I hope you've been able to enjoy your own holiday traditions and spend time with your family and friends more than usual as we reflect on the birth of Jesus. This truly is the most wonderful time of the year!
