Getting In the Christmas Spirit

I normally say "absolutely no Christmas music or decorations until AFTER Thanksgiving," but this year I was itching to get everything up the whole month of November.  I waited patiently until November 28th (Tony put his foot down to decorating earlier).

The holiday season seems to be the time when everyone starts different family traditions. We had a RS activity on family traditions where everyone shared their traditions and I was furiously writing ideas in my journal.  As our family is just beginning, I've been trying to think of what traditions our family wants to do.  Some traditions will evolve, but there are some that I want to plan.  I love traditions.

I got these (below & above) when I was in Ecuador. 

 

Sunday night we listened to Christmas music, ate a taco dip (a tradition of Tony's family), decorated the tree and set out the nativities I collect.  Charlie loved the Christmas tree and surprisingly, hasn't pulled it on top of himself yet.

After putting Charlie to bed, we turned on the fireplace and cuddled up to watch Home Alone.  Christmas can't start until I've watched Home Alone!

For FHE Tony and I read this article and wrote down our gifts for Christ.  I put our "gifts" in envelops and placed them next to the nativity on our fireplace.  We'll be opening and discussing them on Christmas Eve.  As there's 24 days until then (the amount of time it takes to form a habit, supposedly), I'm working on a habit that will bring me closer to Christ and a family service project for Christmas day.  We're both looking forward to spending time on our gifts.

This year we'll be spending Christmas at home and I'm really excited to be in our new home.  Yesterday I told Tony  it seems like we should be moving soon.  We haven't stayed in one place (home, state) for very long and it's exciting to know that this is the home we'll be in for a while.