Boys and their toys

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Christmas Traditions

As John and I began putting decorations away, I remembered our longest running Christmas tradition. In 1995, John and I celebrated our first Christmas as husband and wife. To honor this special event, we purchased an engraved ornament. Being young and clueless, we didn't know much about ornaments. We went to the local Wal-mart and picked out an ornament that could be engraved. They didn't have a machine to do the engraving back then, so the nice lady at the jewelry counter free handed it. The next year we discovered the Things Remembered Kiosk in the Denton mall, and they became our place to get ornaments for many years. When we moved to Mississippi, we faced a new challenge. The nearest Things Remembered was in Monroe, LA. Not exactly convenient, but we drove to Monroe to keep with tradition. The next year we discovered New England Ornaments and began ordering online. Much easier than driving to Monroe.
This year we broke from tradition in that we ordered ornaments early. We will not be repeating this next year since John and I ordered the exact same ornament this year as last. In years past we have gotten the ornaments out and reviewed them to be sure we didn't duplicate. Oh well, it makes for a fun memory.

Christmas 2010

In 2005, we began the tradition of going to a Hibachi Grill for Christmas Eve dinner. This year was no exception. Even though Jacob complains a lot and insists he doesn't like Hibachi, we press on. This year he discovered some items on the menu that agreed with him, so the complaining was much less. I guess our perseverance paid off.In 2007, we began the tradition of including a family photo with our Christmas card. Here is this year's photo. I love looking at previous year's photos and seeing how much we change year to year.We have several other traditions that are essential. On Christmas eve the kids open one present each, but I get to choose which one. It is always pajamas. Once the boys have their new PJs on, John reads the Christmas story. This year was a little different in that the boys read the story. Jacob read from the book of Matthew and Joshua from the book of Luke. I like this new twist on the tradition.

On Christmas morning, the boys get up to tear into all the loot. Santa isn't a big player around here. He usually leaves a couple of things in the stockings, but we've never really put emphasis on him. This year the boys got lots of bigger kid toys. The go kart and doodlebug are sure to keep me on edge, but the boys love them. They also got DSI XL's and various video games. Jacob asked for Lego's, but not little kid Legos. He wanted Star War Legos with lots of little pieces. I am just hopeful he will keep them picked up and out of the dogs reach. Oscar loves to eat little toys. After the gifts are opened, John makes breakfast. This year he treated us to cinnamon rolls using a recipe from the Pioneer Woman. According to the recipe, it makes 8 servings.She must be serving some hungry people, because the above picture is what we had left after we finished breakfast. I think breakfast may last all day. They were very yummy.

Now to go enjoy more of this lovely day with my family. Merry Christmas.

It has to be close to Christmas when you hear this on the radio

Finally heard it for the first time this year on Thursday while running some errands. The holiday season must be here.