New Holiday Traditions

Happy Thursday Ladies! 

 

 

As many of you know, I have been struggling a bit with the whole move!  It has definitely been the hardest on me, but each day it definitely gets easier, and seeing how happy Mark and the kids are totally helps me so much!  So much of my happiness comes from them, so seeing them all so happy, makes me happy!

 

The holiday season has always been my favorite time of year!  Thanksgiving has always been a BIG deal to my mom, it's her favorite holiday, and every year, for the past 40 years, I have spent the holidays with my mom!  I knew when we decided to make this move, that everything was going to change, and that included how we celebrated the holidays.  When we moved from NJ to NC, it definitely sucked not having my extended family around for the holidays, but I had my mom, my brother, my sister in law, my niece, my nephew and my brood...so it was fine!  This will be the first time in my whole life that I won't be spending the holidays with my family...and it is hard, I mean real hard!

 

I love so many things about the holidays, the decorations, the food, the gifts, but what I truly love most of all are the traditions..those things we do year after year, never get tired of, and look so forward to each year!  I love that as much as my kids love getting presents Christmas morning, they truly have come to love tradition also, and I hope they carry some of these things on with their own families one day! 

 

Over the years we have definitely made changes to our traditions, some we have carried on and some have changed due to moving and divorce.  We have been so fortunate that even in divorce, Kenny and I have always spent Christmas together with the kids.  Now trust me, it isn't always easy having your ex at your house for 4 days, spending the holidays with you and your new husband, but hey our kids never asked for this, and we have always been sure to keep THEM a priority, and do what is best for THEM, NOT us!  Sadly this year, because of the distance from FL to NJ, he will not be here for Christmas, I was so nervous to tell the kids about this, but they really seemed OK with it.  He will be coming down the week after Christmas, and I know the kids are super excited about that!  I know to many this will sound so odd, but I am so thankful for my ex-husband and the good guy that he is.  In addition to not having Kenny here for the holidays, I also will not be seeing my family for the holidays!  With just moving, and Mark just starting a new job, he just wasn't able to take time off around the holidays, so we will be here, just us, for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I've shed many tears over this....MANY! 

Mark has been so great, he is so supportive, and he totally gets how sad being away from my family makes me.  He is constantly telling me everything will be fine, and we are going to make so many new traditions and wonderful memories, and I know he is right, but it is still tough! 

For Thanksgiving, we will continue to wake up and all watch the Macy's parade together, and this year instead of getting dressed and ready to head to my moms, we will stay here, make a turkey dinner and just enjoy being together, and remembering that even though we can't be with our family, we still have so much to be thankful for!  It will be extra hard as this will be the first holiday that I don't have all my kiddos with me...Harrison will be coming for Christmas but not for Thanksgiving.  There will be lots of face timing going on...and I am thankful for technology and being able to still "see" my family!

For the past nine years, a few of the kids would spend the night at my mom's house on Thanksgiving and then she would bring them home Friday morning, and her and I would head out for a day of Christmas shopping. This has always been one of my favorite days of the year.  I love just getting to spend the day with my mom, so I am for sure going to miss that this year!  I have ZERO desire to get out there and look for great deals, I did it more for the time with my mom, rather than the deals I could score.  So I am thinking that this Black Friday, I will probably do some online shopping, but will stay home, in my pajamas all day, with the kids and we will decorate for Christmas.  Our tradition of getting our tree on Saturday will stay the same! 

Harrison's birthday is December 9...he will be 20...I am still not sure how that is even possible!  It will be strange not being with him on his birthday!  Again, just something I have to get used to!  Regardless of the move, he would have eventually moved out and this would be the "norm" anyway.

Christmas definitely has me feeling sad!  I love Christmas, and Christmas Eve has always been my favorite day of the year, ever since I was a little girl.  I mean don't get me wrong I love Christmas morning with my kids, but Christmas Eve is just my favorite!  Normally on Christmas Eve my mom comes over, we eat a nice meal, watch Christmas movies and just all hang out together.  This year it will just be us!  I am really going to try and make it as special as possible for everyone!  I am trying hard to not let the kids see how down I am about it all...I don't want to bring them down. 

We would always get together with my brother's family and my mom the weekend before Christmas, have a nice dinner and do a gift exchange, I will miss that, and I know the kids will too!

I know the holidays, though they will be different, will still be wonderful, and I am very much looking forward to new traditions, and making new memories with my crew!  .

I love tradition..would love to hear what your favorite holiday tradition with your family is!

Be sure to check back tomorrow for Friday Favorites!




A Few of Our Favorite Holiday Traditions

Happy Thursday!!  The holidays are my absolute FAVORITE time of the year!  I love everything about it...the decorations, the food, the music, shopping...everything!!!!  But my favorite things are the traditions...to me those are the most important.  I hope that one day my children carry some of these on with their own families.  For 31 years we did the same thing on Christmas Eve, and it was my favorite day of the year, it even was better for me than Christmas morning!  Then, we moved away from family and it was time to start some new traditions..I absolutely love where we live, but I do miss my family terribly, especially around the holidays.

 I was so fortunate to grow up with a very close knit family, and at the forefront of our family was my amazing grandmother.  Sadly earlier this year both my grandfather and grandmother passed away, I was so so lucky to have had both my grandparents in my life for 40 years, can you say BLESSED!!!  Here is a picture of my awesome grandmother...yes this is how she would arrive on Christmas Eve!!!!!

My Granny!!!!

Every year on Christmas Eve before we would have our meal, my whole family, it was about 20-25 of us would play a fun little pass around game that my grandmother insisted we do!  Everyone had to bring a gift, it had to be wrapped, it had to be under $5.00, and the item had to be red or green, it did not have to be a holiday item, just anything red or green.  As we would all sit around in a very large circle, I would read Twas the Night Before Christmas, and everytime I would read the word "the" we would pass our gift to the person sitting next to us (this word is used ALOT in this story), then at the end we all got to open the gift in our hand, it was always so much fun to see all the funny things everyone got.  Some of my past gifts have included red twizzlers, coca cola, green tree car air freshners, just to name a few.  We still do this every year, and it is one of my kiddos very favorite things to do.

Another one of my favorites also happens on Christmas Eve, every year after dinner, we let the kids open one gift, it is ALWAYS pajamas, they know they are getting pajamas, but every year they are super excited to gather round and open this one gift....

Making gingerbread houses is another favorite tradition of ours....so every year we buy the little kit from Target, and the picture on the box has that house looking oh so perfect, well, this is what ours pretty much looks like every year.

may not be perfect, but always fun!!!!

 Christmas Movies.....this is probably my most favorite!  I have a MAJOR love of holiday movies, I would watch them year round if my husband would allow it.  The Hallmark Channel is pretty much on non-stop at my house from mid November straight through until New Years Day.  I have seen most of the movies a hundred times, but they never ever get old...I can recite most of these verbatim, but I will still continue to watch them over and over again, year after year.  And what's even better is my love of Christmas movies has rubbed off on my kiddos...to me there is nothing better than putting on cozy jammies and getting all curled up on the couch watching a holiday movie.  My ALL TIME MOST FAVORITE Christmas movie ever, hands down is.....

I grew up watching this movie, and at 40 years old it is still my absolute favorite!!!!

Christmas ornaments....I love love Christmas ornaments, I was completely devastated a few years back after we had moved and realized one of our boxes containing some of our ornaments was missing, I searched high and low, and it was just gone, I cried for days, no joke, days....the box contained many of the ornaments the kids had made over the years, things that I could not just go out to the store and replace...ugh!!!  Our tree is a mish mosh of all different types of ornaments, we have lots of popsicle stick reindeer, quite a few bead candy canes, and I love them all!!!!  Of course my favorite ornaments are the ones that my children have made, but I also LOVE LOVE LOVE the ornaments that my hubby and I get each year...I am always super excited to hit that little ornament stand in the mall and pick out an ornament and have it personalized...I can't wait to be like 90 and be able to fill a tree with our special ornaments.

  

two peas in a pod:)

this is my favorite....our first holiday together...and the start of so many wonderful memories.

These are just a few of my favorite holiday traditions, and a few things that our family loves to do.  Of course we do lots of other things, bake cookies, visit with Santa, etc.  Santa is a pretty big deal over here with our little ones, and yes we LOVE presents and everything Santa, but I really try so hard to teach my children what Christmas is truly about.  I want them to always know how lucky and fortunate they are for all that they have.  

Would love to hear what some of your holiday traditions are!  Happy Thursday!!!!!