Our Christmas Tradition

When I was little, our Christmas Eve tradition was to eat mac n' cheese and hot dogs, go to a Christmas Eve Service at a local church, and drive around and look at Christmas lights.  One of my favorite parts of the night was pulling up in our driveway afterwards to see all the lights on our house (Dad was a pro at decorating) and knowing I was that much closer to going to bed and then waking in the wee hours of the night at a reasonable hour to open gifts.  As a parent, I realize how difficult it is to develop a tradition and keep it up annually, especially since we are in ministry and we never know when something may come up.  But here is the ONE thing we always do:  

Yep, cuz it's just not Christmastime if we don't go!  It's something Louis and I have done since our dating days back in 1995, well actually since 1997 when I was old enough to go out on dates! 

Some other traditions we do around our house at Christmastime:

•  Wait until the last possible minute to Go Christmas Shopping
• Make cookies with Christmas cookie cutters, and Halloween, Easter, and every other cutter they just "have" to try.
• Go Christmas caroling at the nursing home
• Help with the Angel Tree that our church hosts
• Lead the Christmas Eve service at church
• Stress about the lack of time we have (even though it always falls on the same day, EVERY YEAR
• Talk about and celebrate the birth of Christ, which really is the most perfect and only important gift there is!

For the first time since Abigail was a baby, we got out a wedding present.  Not a set of china, or crystal...but our Nativity Set.  We got it from my grandparents as a wedding gift in May 2000 and at the time of our first Christmas as Mr. & Mrs., we didn't have any other Christmas things to our name.  It was VERY special to us.  This year, it was so special to get it out (now that we have room for it) to share it with our girls.  It's ceramic and delicate, two factors that make it kid-friendly (NOT).  But it's large and so the girls were able to see it very well on the table we stored it on all of Christmas.  The girls never messed with it.  However...I'm not too sure how the Barrel of Monkeys monkeys were dangling from the roof one day.   I know who did it....her name begins with "A".