Category: Parent Talk
my grand baby is not with us for the first christmas. this is because like us they don't believe in making kids travel on christmas. it's nice to see family traditions passed on. additionally, they are predicting a huge ice storm for their area.
what i want to know, is if you guys with little ones can pass on accounts of your days. hearing about them will lessen my baby withdrawal. thanks. merriest of holiday wishes to you and yours.
awe! pore you, i bet you miss your little grand baby girl.
we had a beautiful christmas, and a white one too! verry first white one ever, I could have done with out the blizzard part, but o well. I'll get what I can take, it was also beautiful because it was the first year having noah leagly be ours. we got and gave gifts and noah came home with more toys then I know what to do with. it was just really beautiful, hot chocolate, christmas music, snow fall and I didn't want to leave. I spent alot of time with my neaces and nephiews, and they had a blast with noah. he really didn't get the hole open the present concept, but after we got the paper started for him he'd grab it wrip a peace off and run away waiving his peace of rapping paper high in the air for all to see. he thought it was the grandest thing to cause distruction and habbick and mommy not do any thing about it. after a wile, he realized that the livving room was full of new toys, and there wasn't any other kids around to clame them, so he spent his crhistmas playing with every thing our family's got him, and it was tooo much. I hope you get to see your grand baby soon. and I hope you had a marry christmas, even though she wasn't with you.
p.s.
the only reason we travvled was because our familys threw us an adoption shower. and we had no choice. we had planned on staying here having a nice little quiet christmas, but they wanted us there, come hell or high water. and i'm glad we went there's nothing quite like family for christmas.
in our house, we all act like kids for christmas.
we had our nan down and also our friends from canada (so the little flat was pretty full!)
on christmas eve, we always have a nice dinner while listening to the christmas music and admiring the tree which is always done so well each year. then, just before the end of christmas eve we are allowed 1 present each which is very exciting.
then on christmas day this year we got up at like 7 in the morning, ripped open the gifts as if each one was a bar of gold, and then we had so much stuff we didon't know what to use first!. me, my sister, and our dog (though he was just barking in the middle of the mess|) all enjoyed it.
sometimes, you just gotta enjoy yourself and christmas for me is one of those times
We found this Xmas a lot of fun because our older son is just about to turn 3 and he finally got it. We´ve had to drive all around the neighbourhood to show him Christmas lights, he was all excited about the presents, did not try to eat the wrapping paper and was actually interested in what he got.
Where we come from we celebrate Christmas on Dec 24th (we claim it makes way more sense, after all Jesus was born at night, not in the morning, then again he was supposedly born in september not december, but mostly we´re just used to it).
Well I'm not much for reading the sappy stuff let alone writing it but .. here goes:
This year a couple really neat things happened:
First, Christmas Eve my fifteen-year-old daughter reminded me we were gonna start a tradition of reading the Christmas story ... truth be told I'd forgotten, though after we did it last year she asked we make it a tradition. Anyway that was a very moving affair, I'm not usually one to get close to tears but really it was intense this year ... and I was the one doing the reading ... so very most unusual for me.
Then Christmas morning she was up before us as usual, but instead of just running in and jumping on the bed she had put out the breakfast tray with the Hickory Farms stuff we do every Christmas morning. That wasn't it, though, because her present to her mom and me was a video she'd made using her digital camera with pictures of our wedding photos and captions she'd done. My wife described it, it was really neat.
Honestly I had been concerned about this year, because of the financial situation, but she was far more than just a good sport about it ... not that we overemphasize material things or anything, but I know teens gotta get their loot, and we parents like watchin' em get it. I'll remember this one for a long time I think ...
awe, that sounds so speshal with the vidio and all.I can't wate till noah gets old enough to run and jump on us on christmas morning. hahahahaha.
Yeah the best present is watchin' em play with their stuff once they get it. And sure teens don't 'play' not the same way but still fun to watch them enjoy it ... Yeah she's daddy's girl ...
all of these are wonderful stories. It was hard not seeing estella and mike and kari on the big day. i feel strongly that kids shouldn't have to travel on christmas. that's one tradition we stuck with and i'm glad to see it has passed to the next generation.
mona, where did you go for christmas that they had snow? we got a humongous blizzard the saturday before which was very special. On christmas it was just cold and windy and rained like crazy in the pm.
i'll see the grand daughter in january for her 1 year old party. earlier in december grandpa jim and our daughter went up for the weekend. you can't imagine how special it is to be a guest in our kids house. for years we did for them and gladly. now we can be company and reap the rewards.
mike and kari just sent us a gift box which was lovely and unexpected. the economy is not good where they are so this was a sacrifice.
when our kids were in first and second grade, their teachers wanted us to encourage reading. so we started a tradition which still holds true today. santa and now mom writes clues for some of the gifts. they have to figure out where they are. the complexity has increased with the years. there are also hints in there as to what the item is. even though our girl is 19, she asked for the treasure hunt this year. oh yes the clues are also filled with corny rhymes and cultural references.
from 3 to five are the golden years of christmas. they are still so filled with awe and excitement. now, i still like it as i can relate the story of how each thing was picked. before some red suited dude had to get all the credit.
reading the christmas story is a wonderful tradition. we do the same thing. another thing we do is have a birthday cake at christmas eve dinner and sing happy birthday to jesus.
i love the opening the one fgift on christmas eve. my mom did that but i never did it. frankly there were years when money was tight that one gift on that night would have meant nothing the next day.
you know, it is funny how kids are. our son loves the one big glam gift. one year michael got a stereo for his truck. i said, you know that's it and no more. he was like who cares.
our daughter on the other hand loves a zillion little boxes to open. we spend the same amount but it is divied up differently.
It's a weird set of traditions for us. In Iceland we do not have santa Claus, but we have 13 Christmas elfs who come each night starting 13 days before Christmas. Kids put a shoe in the window and if they are good they get candy or a small toy, if they are bad they get a potato. The presents themselves are clearly marked and there is no mysterious creature who delivers them, so they soon learn to expect certain things from their relatives, I hated the soft packages, who didn't as a kid, at least boys.
In Switzerland where my wife is from Baby Jesus brings the gifts on Christmas eve but they are also sort of from the person who sent them, so we have to find a version that sort of suits all cultures. We didn't worry bout it this yesar but I suppose we keep the Christmas elfs and then we can say Santa brought the presents but this or that person bought them.
If we travel to see family it is, at the very least, 3 hour flight to my sister who lives in Dallas, or 8 hour flight to Iceland or 10 to Switzerland. We were going to go to Europe this Christmas but with plane ticket prices of around 2 grand for the family that just wasn't financially sensible.
So it's fun to stay home, be a family and start new traditions. It's so weird to be a new parent and you have to start the traditions and make them. Oh, in Iceland we put a single peanut or almond in one of the dessert bowls, the one who finds it tries to hide it in his/her mouth and not let on to the others, then everyone tries to guess at the end who has it. When finally the object is revealed that person gets a special present, although it is usually a box of chocolates that everyone eats anyway, was just curious if the U.S. has a tradition like that, it can make for very funny family feast.
Cheers
-B
yes, I agree, it is wonderful to start new traditions. one of our traditions is we sit noah in frunt of the christmas tree and take a picture, we will do that every year for as long as he'll let us. another tradition we have, is that we drink hot chocolate and eat chocolates and candys and cookies and cakes on christmas eve and sing christmas songs, around the christmas tree. I am sure we'll make new traditions as we go along.
and, all that snow was in oklahoma.
this is a fascinating discussion. thanks to all of you who have shared your traditions.
passing thes4e on is so important. making new ones is equally so. these are what form the fabric of the kids' lives.
wildebrew, you asked about the potato thing. first of all did you know why there were 13 elves? siince that's traditionally a bad luck number, just curious as to why it was used. anyway, instead of a potato, if us kids are bad they get coal and switches. at least that's what we were told. one year, my brother was a terrible teen and actually did get some as kind of a joke.
for some reason, my husband's family always ate oyster stew on christmas eve. being the dutiful wife i learned how to make it but none of use including him really like it so that one bit the dust.
in the early teen years, my kids would make a dinner from another country on christmas eve. the most memmorable one year was from portugal. they made a lentil and saussage stew that we still eat regularly.
mona singing carols around the tree is lovely. do you make your son eat breakfast before he opens the gifts? we always did and it drove the kids crazy. especially because jim would do stuff like say "i must drink some more coffee. and "doesn't the trash need to go out?"
I didn't make him eat before gifts this year, but that's not a bad idea. he got a hole 3 foot tall stalking filled full of goodies from his grate granny, so he got chocolate chip cookies for breakfast, that's a once a year thing.
i didn't say we ate good stuff did I? christmas cookies and candy canes before gift opening comprised the breakfast of present prowlers!!