Our Family Holiday Traditions

There are lots of things we look forward to during this festive time of the year but the things we are certain to do (almost) every December are:

• bake mince pies for Momma & Peppermint Patties for Dadda
• paint homemade personalized ornaments (mine are always tacky as you can see-painting is NOT my thing!) This is a Martone tradition that I was trying to keep alive for Emma, but after attempting and failing for 10 years....this is probably my last year. Time to throw in the towel and cut my losses! :)

• spend a day baking homemade candies & gift packs to take around to friends (we made this one for Marissa & Ayden this year-they are getting it tomorrow, so I'm not spoiling anything :) We went with a "Grinch Family Night Fun" theme. Em & B had a BLAST going through all the GRINCH stuff! We hope the Schnebly's like it as much as we do! I filled it with bags of Popcorn, Mini Sprite bottles with tags that say "May Your Days Be Merry and SPRITE", fudge, Grinch tattoos, Grinch pens/pencils & erasers, Grinch soundtrack, Grinch shaped soap, Grinch shaped chocolate lollipops, a cute tile with vinyl lettering, and a Grinch board game! There's something for everyone in this puppy! I think the best part was everything had a "Grinchy" label on it to tie in the theme. :) Oh-and don't forget my annual tacky ornaments tied on the front too! lol!

• look out each day for "The Elf on the Shelf"(she spies on the kids and tells Santa if they're well behaved or not-will be even greater leverage the older they get!!!)
• buy 1 new special ornament to add to our collection from Kris Kringle shop in Leavenworth
• kids get to eat 1 chocolate each day from the Christmas advent calendar (usually sent from Nana)
• watch 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" & "The Grinch" cartoons 
• take a drive to look at Christmas lights around town
• get new Christmas jammies
• open 1 gift on the night of the 23rd
• open our gifts at home on Christmas Eve day and head to Grandma & Papa's that night
• read the Night Before Christmas before retiring on the 24th
• have kids Christmas pictures taken in their fancy outfits (we don't do Department store/Mall Santa pictures...I think they are cheesy & overpriced-though the kids usually have SOME other type of Santa picture at some point during the season)
• let Dadda put the star on the tree (last of all the decorations)

When we were kids, my mom always stressed the importance of homemade gifts between my sisters and I....not because we couldn't afford it, but because of the thought that goes into it. To this day, I still enjoy those things the most (for any occasion). And YES-I am the person who enjoys the wrapping as much as the gift inside the package-annoying, I know. :)
Anyhow-this year Mike and I have decided that we are spending a limited amount on each other and the BIG gift we give each other is supposed to be "homemade". I am super excited for the idea I finally came up with for mine...sorry, can't tell. Mike is REALLY nosey this time of year! Now just keeping my fingers crossed that it turns out the way I picture it in my head!