The song, "Tradition," from "Fiddler on the Roof" is on repeat in my head. Hopefully it's stuck in your head now too. Both Andrew and I come from families that make the holiday season special with established traditions.
DITTO TRADITIONS
ABH Premier
The "All Brothers Hike" has been going on for over 20 years now. Although I don't get to go (darn! Camping is life), Kelly puts a video together with footage of the hike each year. The kids think their dads are celebrities when they see them on the screen.
We were happy to be in WA for the ABH premier earlier this month. To start the night off strong, we typically do a "pizza potluck." This is right up my alley. Everyone brings pizza to share. You can find all the toppings your heart desires (although, why you would want anything other than pepperoni is beyond me?) and people bring pizza from a variety of places, so if Domino's isn't your jam, there are plenty of other options.
Favorite Things Gift Exchange
The adults in the Ditto fam do a favorite things gift exchange for Christmas. I always look forward to it and ponder all year what to buy. This year, I gave Lehi Mills blueberry muffin mix and a candle from Bath and Body Works. As I mentioned in my book post, Andrew gave the book "Project Hail Mary" for his favorite thing. I came home with such a variety of things from our gift exchange-- earings, makeup, food, a journal, and more.
DENNING TRADITIONS
Chips and Salsa
There are always so many sweets around Christmas time. I've been guilty of throwing away perfectly good plates of cookies because I simply can't stomach another sugary dessert. I love that my parents give out chips and salsa to their neighbors. Having something salty to even out my palette during this time of year is needed. All of their neighbors look forward to their salsa each year and we have quite the assembly line going to get the salsa making done as effectiently as possible. I'm usually in charge of filling bags with tortilla chips.
Christmas Eve
This day involves opening matching jammies, acting out the nativity in full costumes, PIZZA, wrapping presents for each other in the same room, usually a Christmas movie of some sort, and games. Yes, you read that correctly. We wrap our gifts for each other all together. It makes it kind of like a game and you'll hear, "Jenna, don't look over here because I'm wrapping your present," and see a plethora of afghan blankets covering gifts. We do our sibling gift exchange that night and thinking about it warms my heart. My siblings are so thoughtful!
NEW TRADITIONS FOR MY LITTLES
Wrapped Christmas Books
This is a common tradition and I finally jumped on the bandwagon. I'm so happy I did! I didn't have 24 Christmas books, but found a good deal and bought more. I wrapped the Christmas books and placed them under our tree. Each night, the kids traded off opening one story that we read as family. While listening, the children got to eat a piece of chocolate from their advent calendars. This was hands down the best time of day. I'm now quite proud of our Christmas book collection and am avoiding putting it away.
Themed Wrapping Paper
Instead of labeling our kids presents this year, I wrapped their gifts using wrapping paper that I thought they would like. It was pretty obvious which gifts were for James and which ones were Izzy's.
Family Sleepover
To change up movie watching this month, we did special things. The most-liked by far was the family sleepover. We put an air mattress in our room and the kids got to watch, "The Grinch." Who knew this would cause so much excitement!? I don't think they'll always want to sleep near us, so I'll take it while I can. Adding to the extravagence, we went to the movie theater and bought popcorn to eat at our house. Izzy had 3 large bowls of that buttery popcorn. It's hard to stop eating that goodness once you start.
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