We finished the run-up to Christmas with some fun events.....
Parties for the grown ups
and parties with the kids (complete with big band entertainment)
Christmas baking
And the ultimate parent experience...putting together our child's Christmas toys!
Naturally, it took a little longer than anticipated....
We also started combining some new traditions with ones from the past. My family has always been very actively involved with Country Santa, an organization that helps rural families at Christmas. For as long as I can remember, Christmas Eve morning has been spent handing out toys to be delivered. It is truly a family affair with my sisters Deanna and Stephanie directing traffic, myself calling for bags and organizing them, Jason running bags, and my brother in law and nephews delivering the bags to houses. Of course, my dad is wandering around supervising the whole process with a walkie talkie glued to his ear. The picture below is of my grandfather helping to choose and bag toys for a child earlier in the season.
Since the delivery process starts very early in the morning, we decided to spend the night before the night before Christmas with my parents. This also allowed us to have a special night with my family, but for Max to be at home on Christmas morning. Our other new tradition was for my family to come over to our house for brunch on Christmas morning before we went to lunch with the extended family at my grandparents' house. Jason's parents also came down to join us for several days of celebration, so we were very lucky to have time with both sides of Max's family. It's exciting to start our own rituals, as well as to include Max into the old ones!
No comments:
Post a Comment