Tanya and I bought four small moleskine notebooks this year – one for each of our kids.  We will semi-regularly write in each one during the year whenever the mood strikes us.  The entries we make will be short letters to them in the future about what we are thinking and feeling about them right then.  One day, we hope to give them a set of these books (as far as we’ve maintained them) that they can look at and see more than just stories of their childhood as we could tell them while reminiscing.  They’ll see what we wrote to them while in that period of their life – our hopes, thoughts, and joys of being with them like windows to the past.  We’re just starting, but I am really excited about giving these to them one day.  I think it will be one of the more meaningful things we will do as they grow up.

I suggest choosing an undated book so there are no big gaping holes when you might miss a day.  You could use a plain notebook as well, and there are off-brand versions of Moleskine-like books out there, too.  We just chose a nice looking book, and once without lines so I could draw in them, too, from time to time.  Anything will work, as long as you make a commitment and set some kind of reminder to keep it up.   It’s not your normal New Year’s resolution, but it’s one change you can make to your routine that will make a significant difference.

Tanya gave me an idea that may be more meaningful for me in the long run, so I wanted to share it. Instead of “making it through” all the verses, I plan to focus on one verse. This is an idea that is apparently becoming popular – to choose one verse to memorize and keep central throughout the year. It’s less of a struggle to complete, and potentially more fulfilling if done through daily prayer and listening to God.

My verse for the last year was Rom 8:28, no doubt, without me planning for it to be. I don’t know what I might choose for this year, yet, or if I’ll just actively look for a verse that applies this year as well as Rom 8:28 did last year. I’m thinking about it though, because that verse meant a lot to me in many things that happened over the year. I’d like to see what other verse I can add to that toolbox of support and understanding for this year.

This idea is great, too, if that whole life-verse idea seems overwhelming right now. Try one on for a year…maybe change it once a month…see if it fits. Don’t get it tattooed until the verse makes it through at least sixty consecutive days, though – you’ll thank me later.

If anyone has done this before I’d love to hear the verse you chose and how it affected you. If you decide to start this year, what verse do you plan to commit to?

After stockings we have breakfast, and then open presents.  I’ve discovered that isn’t as straight-forward as you’d think.  Some families have everything unwrapped and under the tree from Santa.  If everything is wrapped, some people have a free-for-all and it’s nothing but paper, bows, and elbows as they are opened.  Some people pass out presents as each person opens one present all at once in unison.  We tend to pass out a present to everyone and then go in turn as we each open that present until that round is complete, and reload to do it again.  Honestly, there are so many variations on how to do this, it’s traumatizing as you try to adapt after getting married and try to look intelligent at each house you travel to.  Maybe you got lucky – I got to expand my horizons and learn lots of new methods.

Presents go a LONG time in our house.  We have lots of kids, and usually have visitors, and the opening routine tends to slow down the process.  We usually are still going at it through lunch, so we have a “working lunch” tradition of appetizers.  Tanya makes stuffed mushrooms, pigs in a blanket, meatballs, sausage balls, spinach and artichoke dip, cheese balls,…  she goes crazy – it’s awesome.  This tides us all over until our traditional Christmas prime rib dinner we usually get from Tanya’s Step-Dad, but that Tanya makes in his absence to carry on the tradition.

The rest of the time is spent jockeying for position on the video game system or TV to play any games we may have received.  While we wait, we usually try out our new board games, together.  Santa brings board games and books in our house, usually stacked in front of everything and unwrapped on Christmas morning.  Generally speaking, everyone gets a new board game on Christmas morning.  It’s a great way to build a game collection.

As this will be my last post about Christmas traditions this year, I hope you’ve seen some ideas that you can incorporate into your own families’ traditions.  These are all important to us, and really define the holiday’s activities.  We think having predictable traditions gives everyone an idea of what to expect and be excited about.  They connect us through shared anticipation and memories.  I’d love to hear any you have that I may not have talked about – there’s always room to begin new traditions.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, however you celebrate it! 

After driving around, we come home and enjoy cocoa in special Christmas mugs.

We have had these mugs for most of our marriage.  We had no idea we would need so many when we started, so we’ve added different styles for different people (Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, etc) whenever we had more people present than the previous Christmas.

It’s around that time that we try to have a Christmas Eve craft for the kids, depending on how crazy they are and how near we all are to a nervous break down.  A few years ago we made these snowman magnets.

This year, we will be making snowflake photo frames.

We finish the evening by reading The Night Before Christmas (having read the story of Jesus’ birth the night before in preparation of the Christmas Eve church service).  Then we do like every parent in America and try to convince our kids they can calmly fall asleep while anticipating magical gift delivery like it was any other night

This is a fun tradition on Christmas Eve.  If you go to the NORAD Santa Tracker page, you can see that Santa is already on the way, even as I type this!  This page tracks Santa as he travels around the world, and gives videos and pictures of the places he has stopped at.  There are some videos of Santa flying by many of the most well known monuments, too.  They have apps for iOS and Android, for mobile tracking, too.  There are games on the site, as well, but most of the kids I see on Christmas Eve are more interested in knowing where Santa is at any given time – much like their parents tracking UPS or FedEx…

We have a tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve.  We all know it will be our Christmas PJs that we will wear for the festivities the following morning, but the kids haven’t all caught on, yet.  The fewer Christmases they have had, the fewer samples they have available to discern a pattern, you see.

As far as the kids know, they get to pick the present they open.  We just don’t make it fair.  This started when Tanya was a little girl.  How did her parents make sure she always picked PJs to open on Christmas Eve?  The same way we do.  You tie a huge piece of candy in the ribbon.  Works every time! 

I’ve had fun re-creating this with my kids.  You can only do it a few times before Santa appears perpetually clumsy, but I’ve not reached a point that any kid has balked – the response is always jaw-dropping amazement and strenuous attempts to sleep while still talking about what happened.

The key is finding some bells.  That’s the trigger, and the effect can’t be understated.

Try this on Christmas Eve – have someone ring bells outside a window, and then look at your kids and ask them, “Did you hear that?!  Let’s go see what it is!”  If you can have someone stomp around on the roof, it wouldn’t hurt.

When you get outside, wander around looking for Santa, and stumble across a few dropped presents that *someone* dropped in the yard earlier.  If you see a red light in the sky, point to Rudolf and make sure the kids see him.  Then try to get them to calmly go to sleep.  I promise, they’ll still be talking about it next year

As we’ve been wrapping presents recently, we have been doing another tradition our family created that makes Christmas morning more enjoyable for everyone. We pre-open the presents. That may sound strange, so let me explain.

Think about Christmas morning for a bit. The kids have all opened their presents and immediately settle into a toy induced bliss, leaving the parents to relax and bask in the happiness of it all… Oh, wait, that’s not right – let me try again. Ok, the presents are all open and you’re exhausted from staying up late and being woken up at 04:00, and what’s the next thing you hear? “Daddy, Mommy, can you open this? I need batteries?” etc, etc…

So, we pre-open. We take all the toys and cut all the plastic ties we can cut before wrapping goes on. We put batteries in everything that won’t immediately start talking after it’s wrapped. Anything that needs assembly is probably put together as much as is possible in a way that it can still be wrapped or put out. The toys are all put back into the same containers and the kids can’t really tell, but on Christmas morning we will know. The kids will be able to play immediately and self-sufficiently, and their frustration at having to wait on us is gone. We can enjoy watching the presents open and anticipate playing with our own stuff rather than trying to think about priorities of work when things are done.

This tradition was a eureka moment for us. Please feel free to try it, and let me know if it helped your holiday spirits. I’d love to hear about it.

The tradition started with Tanya.  Every year, Tanya’s parents gave her an ornament as a present on Christmas.  These ornaments were kept in Tanya’s own ornament box as she grew up, adding at least one new ornament per year.  When Tanya grew up, she took her ornament collection with her when she moved out and used it to decorate her first Christmas tree with all the ornaments given to her throughout her childhood.  We still have and use her ornament box, today.

Tanya liked this tradition so much that we’ve got a box for each of our kids, too.  Every Christmas they get at least one ornament each.  (There are annual discussions about why the oldest has more ornaments because he has had more Christmases, and no, no one will ever catch up to him until he moves out, but that’s ok)

The kids all look forward to opening their ornament box to decorate the tree.  They look at each one, remembering when they got it and reminiscing about when they made the preschool ornaments that we also keep in their boxes.  They each hang their own ornaments on the tree, showing them to each other as they do so.  With so many of their ornaments, Tanya’s ornaments have had to be scaled back to make room recently.  I expect a VERY full tree in the coming years, as this continues.

We try to choose ornaments based on their interests for each specific year.  The older boys are getting Hex Bug ornaments, this year.  A light-up Yoda and a Princess Castle round out the younger two.  They may get more than just these, but these ornaments are the ones Tanya and I picked for them based on some of their interests for the past year.

They each have a small ornament box, now.  I anticipate these being replaced by bigger and bigger boxes until one day they do just like their Mommy and move out with their ornaments to start a life on their own.  I like to think they will remember our Christmases together, no matter where they may go, because they will have this tradition and the ornament collection it creates.

I had wrapped presents before I met her, but, on our first Christmas as a couple, Tanya told me I had been doing it wrong my whole life.  I was doing such a poor job, some members of Tanya’s family refused to allow me to wrap unless I changed my ways.  If I tried, they re-wrapped the presents “correctly.”  What was I doing wrong?  I was making them look horrible and robbing the joy of Christmas from every kid in a square mile… (t was that serious, to some people at least!)

You see, I grew up with a big bag of self-adhesive bows that just stick on the wrapping paper.  I’m sure that had something to do with the patience level of my parents, but that’s for my therapist and not this blog.

Tanya, on the other hand, grew up with an OCD elf overseer.  I must say, that “rough” childhood makes for a good looking spread on Christmas morning, though.  Her presents, and all that pass her muster, will not be simply covered in paper and adorned with a sticky bow.  Her presents must be folded crisply and neatly, and the folds must be pretty.  The present is naked until it has ribbon tied around it, IN A COLOR THAT MATCHES!!!  Sorry…flashbacks…

You can see some presents that may pass Tanya’s scrutiny in the picture above.  Granted, her attention to detail has slightly eased off after having kids.  Before, every present was also likely to have a small token (see the ornaments and such, above?).  These days, just ribbon may be ok, but only after we have a sufficient number of pretty presents to stack in front of the “embarrassing” ones.  (That picture is from a recent Christmas, but all people in the picture have been cropped out to protect the innocent)

All joking aside, this is a family tradition that I married into.  Tanya was serious when she told me I was doing it wrong, and I didn’t get it until Christmas morning.  It really is pretty when all the presents are stacked under (beside, in front of, around…there are usually lots of presents).  It feels a little more special when you get a present that isn’t just secret, but also decorated by someone who took time to pay attention to those details when wrapping it.  Tanya’s family knew what they were talking about when they set me straight

We have stopped doing this as much as we used to with the rush that comes from preparing Christmas for little ones.  We no longer keep a bag of ribbon from the previous years’ opened presents to recycle the next year.  The ribbon we buy now is the cheaper kind and doesn’t last through as many uses and the ribbons we used to use.  Still, I guarantee presents under our tree will have some attention paid to them.  A little effort goes a long way in making the presents and tree look nice.  It makes everyone smile, and carries on a tradition we have maintained since our first Christmas together.  I look forward to my kids telling others that they aren’t wrapping presents right, and watching this tradition carry on.