Please grab a cup of hot chocolate (don’t forget the peppermint stick to stir the whipped cream with) and come with me as I share with you our favorite Christmas Traditions and a tour of our home all decked out for Christmas.

1. Putting up our Nativity. This used to be Miss Sam’s favorite part of decorating for Christmas. My mother made this nativity scene when Miss Sam was just a toddler. Each year Miss Sam found great joy in carefully placing each piece in “just the right place” and looked forward to the time when baby Jesus appeared. This year however, the Rubbermaid bin sat in the designated area for about three days before I could  intimidate encourage her to do her part. Teenagers…sigh.

2. Christmas Music. Every year after the Christmas season came to an end we would go shopping for the 1/2 price Christmas music. It tickled me when my daughter would find an old cassette of the Chipmunks and hold it up and say “what’s this?”…referring not to the chipmunks but the cassette. It has become a tradition to hunt all these tunes down in our pile of CDs and play them full blast while trimming the tree…it is amazing how it is hard to distinguish Miss Sam’s voice from Alvin’s. This year however, Miss Sam searches out her favorite Christmas tunes in Japanese on You Tube. Teenagers…..sigh.

3. Trimming the Christmas Tree. We have always had an artificial tree and as the years go by the branches are beginning to look more and more like Charlie Brown’s tree. Every year we say that we are going to get a new tree during the after Christmas sales but we just can’t bear to part with our old tree. We bought this tree on our first Christmas together as a couple and it is the only tree that Miss Sam has ever known. It is part of our family. This year we enlisted the help of Miss Sam’s cousin who generously helped his ‘old auntie’ and his ‘lazy cousin’ by building our tree all by himself. Miss Sam of course sat on the floor and ‘fluffed up the branches’. Teenagers…..sigh.

4. Placing the Star on the Tree. Miss Sam and her Dad have always placed the star on the tree together. For many years she had to stand atop her father’s shoulders to reach the top branch. Last year brought tears to my eyes. Miss Sam is now tall enough to place the star on the top of tree by herself. This year, I was left to finish decorating the tree and placing the star on without any fanfare or picture taking (photo is from last year). Miss Sam and her cousin were engrossed in the computer game ‘Spore’. Learning how to create creatures that would rather devour the Christmas star rather than ‘oooohhh and ahhhhhh’ about it. Teenagers….sigh.

5. Hanging the Stockings. When Mr. J and I were first married, my mother knitted stockings with our names and year of birth on them. They are quite beautiful. Samantha received one of her own on her first Christmas.This year, I hung them up by myself. Miss Sam was still sleeping all snug in her bed. Did I mention that it was 11:00 am??????? Teenagers….sigh.

6. Wildlife Park Celebrations. In our area here on the Nature coast, we are blessed to have several very beautiful wildlife parks. Each Christmas we travel to one of them with family and friends. There are acres and acres of Christmas lights and we are able to enjoy God’s creatures as we walk through the park. This is truly a blessed event. This is a photo from last year. Our dear friends called last night to decide on a date for our visit to the park this year. It is going to take some ‘negotiating’ to get the teens in the group to agree and sitting on Santa’s lap this year is not an option. I was able last year to get the traditional ‘photo op’ with the promise that I would not ask her to do it this year. Teenagers….sigh.

7. Gingerfriend Baking Fest and the Annual Flour Fight That Follows. I am by no means a kitchen gourmet, so when Miss Sam saw Little Bear making Gingerfriend cookies many years ago, it was them or a bucketful of tears..and I was frantic. Thank goodness for the Internet. At this particular time, Little Bear had his own link on Nick. Jr…and so, through the years we have made Little Bear’s Gingerfriend cookies. This is a snapshot from last year. No date has been decided for the annual flour fight this year. Perhaps we can use that as a bribe to visit the Festival of Lights at the Wildlife Park. Teenagers….sigh.

8. Letter To Santa. Miss Sam has always saved her letter writing to Santa for Christmas Eve. As I look back through the Christmas Scrapbooks I see a chronicle of a child growing up into a beautiful young girl. From scribbles to cursive…from Barney videos to High School Musical DVDs. This year Miss Sam has already created her list on Microsoft Power Point complete with holiday graphics. Teenagers…sigh.

9. Cookies for Santa. For Miss Sam’s first Christmas I bought a special cookie plate and milk glass for leaving nourishment for Santa on his trek across the world. Every year, Santa not only gets Gingerfriend cookies but also a glazed doughnut on his own special plate. This year perhaps granola bars and soy milk would be a better choice. Mothers….sigh.

10. Reindeer Oats. Santa gets his cookies and doughnut and the reindeer get their oats. A special combination of oatmeal and glitter…special reindeer food. After Santa’s treats are set out we venture outside and sprinkle the yard with oats. The glitter helps the reindeer find it. This  is one of the traditions that Miss Sam still gets excited about. Hope it rings true for this year also.

11. Floured Porch. Miss Sam is always the scientist…like her mom I suppose. When she was three years old she came up with the idea that we should leave flour on the front porch. This way, when Santa came to visit…we would be able to see his footprints on our own front porch! We now do this every Christmas Eve…needless to say, between the flour fights and the footprint tracking, we go through quite a few pounds of flour this time of year.

12. Santa Key. There was only one place we lived that actually had a fireplace. Therefore, we have always had a Santa Key. I suspect that the teenager that lives in our home will have no qualms about keeping up with this particular Christmas tradition. After all….she still believes. Mothers….sigh.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

From our home to yours.

How do you celebrate the season?