Christmas Traditions

We have lots of fun Christmas traditions and we seem to keep adding to them each year. Some we do once and others are daily things we do.
1. Advent Chocolate Calendar and Jesse Tree-These are two that we start on Dec. 1 and do until Christmas Eve. My mom has always given the girls the chocolate calendar and they love it. Each morning it is the first thing they do and they love to see what their chocolate will be (Stocking, Chimney, Reindeer, Santa). The other thing we try to do daily and I'll be honest I did a horrible job this year doing it at all is the Jesse Tree that walks through the lineage of Jesus. We all love it but with Disney thrown in and getting behind we didn't do it every day.

2. Christmas Lights-We love our Christmas Light Looking tradition. We grab Hot Chocolate and White Chocolate Mocha's from Starbucks before we head out. Last year when we did this a family paid for our drinks in the line and we thought that was so great that we wanted to continue the tradition. Of course this year when we got to Starbucks no one was behind us and we waited and waited so we left a gift card. Then we hunted for houses and the picture below was the most decorated we saw. Crazy!! The girls loved it.

3. Buying Each other gifts-One day we always take the girls to Target so they can buy a special gift for their sister. This year Katie urged Kylee to get her something Scooby Doo and Kylee urged Katie for an itunes gift card so that is what they found. They are always so proud of their gifts and Katie always spills the beans before it is time to open them.

5. Gingerbread House Making-The girls love this and I am so not a big fan. It is messy and hard to do but I put on a smile and we decorate and it is never super pretty but the girls love it and they are proud of their work. They even made the candy into Mickey faces. They will be great at it by the time they are parents.

6. Our newest tradition that we will add to each year is Christmas cookie baking-This year we started with what we called Santa Surprise cookies bc you found a yummy Hershey's kiss in the middle of the cookie. The girls helped with the whole process. We had a assembly line. I flattened out the dough, Katie put the kiss in the middle and Kylee rolled it into a ball. We had fun and I am on the look out for another yummy cookie or treat to add next year.