Monday, December 20, 2010

A Good Tradition





I like traditions, but I am also pretty flexible with them and know they are only for a season...especially with Christmas and the evolution of family.

One distinct tradition that we do right now is that I wrap roughly 10 gifts and place them under the tree...10 days before we leave for the grandparents. We never have Christmas in our own house, under our own tree. There is no Christmas morning for just us, so unless I think outside the box a bit our family wouldn't have any special Christmas memories for just us....around the concept of gift giving.

Each night the boys open one more gift until they get to number 10! This spreads out the joy and helps with their inpatients for the big day. I start very small and work our way up....many of the gifts are shared items. (Plus it helps them slow down and enjoy each one. When we open our items all on one day it is very exciting, but often gifts upstage each other.)

This is what we've unwrapped so far:

1. An ornament for each boy
2. Lifesaver books
3. Mini-white powdered donuts...my middle's favorite
4. Each received a new book
5. A new game for the older two and a spinning, light-it-up toy for the "baby"
6. Calendars for the older two and a puzzle for our youngest

Anyone curious what gifts 7-10 are going to be?

4 comments:

Jessica said...

That's a great, creative thing to do, Rebekah. You are such a wonderful mom--I'm sure your boys will share this one day as a favorite tradition!

Jessica said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
James & Kristin said...

What a great idea! There's such stress with holiday traditions sometimes, but this is a good one! Think we might take it up next year.

Felicia said...

What a great idea. I may have to steal this and kind of modify it for my girls. Every other year Drama Queen is at her bio-dads for Christmas day. This means we are ALWAYS travelling on Christmas Eve/Day. The years I get her on Christmas day aren't so bad but the other years can be a little rough.

This would be something special for her that we could do.

Thanks for sharing.