With the Christmas season upon us, we've been talking a lot about traditions at our house.
Of course, there are Wagner family traditions and Elser family traditions that Drew & I have brought to our marriage - many of which we will continue. However, now that we have our own child, it is up to us to establish traditions for our family. The three of us. And while the thought of implementing our own family traditions for Jackson (and any future children we may or may not be blessed with) is very exciting, I have to admit, I also feel a slight amount of pressure to get it just right.
Here's what we know so far:
We will continue a tradition from Drew's childhood, commonly referred to as The Elf on the Shelf. On the day after Thanksgiving, an elf will appear in the house. This "magic" elf's task is to keep an eye on the children and report their behavior to Santa. He moves around regularly so you never know where he might appear.
We will bake cookies for Santa. I love to bake and always imagined cutting out Christmas cookies to be a tradition I would start with my children. When I asked Drew if he thought we should leave cookies & milk for Santa he replied, "I think Santa would like that."
Ideally, we'd like for Christmas Day to be spent at home. So that Jackson can wake up in his own bed, rush down the hall to explore the treasures Santa has left and stay in his pj's as long as he wants. So we can enjoy the entire day together lingering around the tree opening and playing with gifts, feasting on our favorite holiday treats, listening to Christmas music and just enjoying being a family. All of this without having to pack bags, load the car, kennel the dog and hit the road. Obviously, we realize that with family spread across the country this will not always be possible; however, we're going to make our best effort to stay close to home on Christmas Day.
That's pretty much all we've got so far. What about you? What are some of your holiday traditions? Leave a comment...I'd love to hear them!
1 comment:
Well, as you know, we have an elf too. Plus, we will totally be putting out cookies for the big man plus carrots and other veggies for the reindeer.
One area we had to meld was how Santa gifts come. In A's family, they're wrapped and under the tree Xmas morning just like all the other gifts. In my family, they are just laid out unwrapped to be discovered on Xmas AM. We've decided to blend these by wrapping most SC gifts in a special Santa-only paper (no tie to us that way). We're actually thinking brown paper for the nondescript aspect. The bigger more complicated to wrap gifts will be left unwrapped. However, we purchased a giant Santa bag from Pottery Barn to put everything Santa brings in. We'll leave it out Tday night for SC to pick up when he drops off the elf.
Other than that, we're still working things out. We might pick up our tree while we're in the mountains, we don't know where we'll visit Santa, and the color (or lack of color) of exterior lights is always a discussion.
I'm sure whatever you do will be perfect and that some of the best traditions will be formed unintentionally.
It's gonna be a fun holiday!
-Abby
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