1. Making buffalo balls for teachers, friends and just those that beg for them every year. As stupid as Wes and my brother in law think it is, this is a secret recipe that my bus driver gave to my mom in the 5th grade and made her promise that she would never give it to anyone else. I stopped and pondered yesterday why in the world my mother would receive a gift, which then was a basket of buffalo balls, from my bus driver? Shouldn't my mom have been giving her a gift for her great driving skills? I wrote it off as me being such a good kid that she rewarded my mother with a gift :) Regardless, somehow my mother got a hold of these buffalo balls from her, asked her for the recipe, she gave in but made her promise not to give it away. So every year my mother would make buffalo balls and it became a treat for those that received them because 1. They are delicious and 2. Noone knew how to make them so they had to come through us. One of the teachers at Calli's school told me that I HAVE to change the name. I agreed that it doesn't sound good when my 5 year old goes running down the hall with a basket full of them saying "Mrs. Jeanne, I brought you buffalo balls". Then when you get a look at one, it's not very appetizing after you know the name. All that to say, the tradition continues with us. Calli is a great helper now.
2. On Calli's first Christmas I was at a friends house who had several snow globes out on tables. Not the cheap plastic kind but the beautiful ones that are themed and/or play music and I decided to start my own tradition with her. So that first Christmas, I bought her a baby Jesus snow globe and each year after, I buy her a new one. She LOVES getting down the Christmas decorations so she can pull out all of her snow globes and lay them out in her room. We have had two break but that made for a meltdown...I mean a memory! Someday when she leaves our house and starts her own family, she'll have some beautiful decorations to remember her childhood Christmases. When Colson was about 2.5 he wanted snow globes. I didn't really start this with him because I thought when he goes out on his own, is he really going to want to take snow globes with him? Kinda doubtful. But when he was 2 and he threw big fits because he didn't have any snowglobes, I decided a cute collection for him would be an animated Christmas toy every year. Anything to stop the madness right? Although now the madness is listening to the animated chipmunks sing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" at the same time that the animated dog is barking "Silent Night" while the penguins are singing....you get the idea right?
3. On December 1st we begin our Christmas book reading. I wrap 23 Christmas books and place them under the tree. Each night the kids take turns in picking out a book, unwrapping it and then I read it to them. All Christmas themed! Since we had/have some cheesy Christmas books, I have bought a nice new one every year to replace those not so good ones. Last year I put their handprints in them and let them write their name and date. This will make it fun to look back at over the years. This brings us to our next tradition.....
4. On Christmas Eve instead of unwrapping a Christmas book to read, we read the Christmas story from the Bible. This helps us remember the real reason that we celebrate Christmas and the real Truth.
5. Each year I let the kids pick out their own Hallmark ornament and write the year on it. I try to encourage them to purchase an ornament that reflects an interest for them that year. This will be another tradition that benefits them when they grow up because they will have ornaments right away to decorate with on their first Christmas.
Colson picked out batman this year
Calli picked out an animated elf....she's into animated6. Each year I also buy them matching pj's that they wear on Christmas Eve which makes for cute pictures Christmas morning. This year I even bought a matching set for Hudson, my new 5 month old nephew.
7. Another idea that I carried on from my mom was decorating gingerbread houses. We make miniature gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and use all kinds of candy to decorate them up. At our house now, we invite a friend or two over every year to make it more fun. Last year I got a really wild hair and did it for Calli's entire 2nd grade class. I made 21 houses the night before, transported them to the school without breaking and then the kids spent the afternoon decorating them. This year I'm going back to the friend concept and we have 4 or 5 girls coming over next Sunday for some candy eating, sugar high, fancified decorating! I'll let Colson invite a friend too.
8. Our newest tradition began last year when our very own elf arrived that the kids named Jack. I've already posted about this but let me just restate that my kids do not forget to look for Jack every morning....it's very exciting!
These are some of the things that make our Christmas' special. Calli looks forward to them and Colson has begun reminding/asking about them. What I hope they instill is memories of togetherness and fun. Do you have any?
1 comment:
We take the baby Jesus' out of all our nativity scenes and wrap them all together - it's the prettiest and most ornate package under the tree. The tag says "To: Team Whitaker, From: God" It's the first package we open when we get home from Christmas Eve Mass. Another reminder of our greatest gift :-)
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