Christmas Favorites

My favorite tradition this year? Hands down, the Christmas book countdown. It was a wonderful addition to our usual routines. Everyday after lunch and before Keegen's nap, the boys would take turns opening that day's book. It was so fun to have new books and i was really happy with a lot of the selections. I tried to have a balance between fun, Santa-type books and those that talked about Jesus and the reason we celebrate Christmas. I loved it. The boys loved it. It will definitely be a tradition in our house from here on out.

My favorite books of the 19? Mortimer's Christmas Manger. Loved it. This is the Stable was wonderful. And Santa's Favorite Story was a pleasant surprise. The classics we loved? Merry Christmas, Curious George. Olivia Helps with Christmas. The Polar Express. And, the Grinch. There were four that i will most likely replace before next year.


This was a neat year in that it was so easy and fun to teach the boys about Christ's birth and the Christmas story. All of the wonderful books we read fostered their learning. We'd drive through the neighborhood looking at lights and Bode asked about Joseph and Mary when he saw a nativity in a neighbor's yard. It was fun to have peppered through everyday conversation teachings about Jesus and why we celebrate Christmas. I felt like it was laying a foundation for the boys to better understand that Christ is their Savior. It wasn't forced or planned in any elaborate way. It just happened easily.


Doug's mom sent the boys a Christmas advent she made that we "opened" every morning. She had a stuffed animal at the top and hanging down from the animal were an assortment of treats, each individually wrapped in green plastic wrap for each day. Little candies, toy cars, Christmas pencils and erasers. So the boys got to start their day with a treat (when it wasn't a piece of candy, they got the little gift from the advent and then got to pick a candy out of the candy bowl). It will be a rude awakening when they realize that eating candy before breakfast will not be a tradition we will continue throughout the year. We will have to continue some sort of fun advent like this for next Christmas, though.


Oh. And jammies. I do love our Christmas jammie tradition. They don them and we get cute shots of them in front of the tree. This year we actually got a picture of the whole family reading our final Christmas book in front of the tree. I meant to get a pic of all of us in front of the tree Christmas morning, but i forgot.