Glimpse into my past: I have one sister and one brother. As the youngest, I was always the first to spring from my bed and the one to wake everyone up with “Santa came! Santa came!”, promptly at 6:00am. Once the gifts were exchanged, we started the day with Christmas breakfast. This was my favorite holiday tradition as a child, I guess I've always been a Foodie. However, it wasn't a typical breakfast. Our neighbors and family's best friends would join us. The smell of our friend's sweet, homemade cinnamon rolls, eggs, crispy bacon, sausage, egg nog french toast, and don't forget the buttery grits, would be wafting through the air, tickling your nose and teasing every taste bud in your mouth. After breakfast my grandparents would come to our house to see what we got for Christmas. My grandpa would video each of us showing off every single present, even the socks, while Grandma would “Ooo” and “Aaah” over them. What they did with videos of 13 (then) grandkids year after year sure beats me! I'm sure those videos are somewhere and probably hilarious full of bed head, 80's style perms and awkward ages! After they left we spent the rest of the day playing with toys, visiting family or just relaxing.
The Present: Now that I have my own (not so little) family, we are ready to begin our own family traditions. We've carried on two of our parents' Christmas traditions: opening one gift on Christmas eve and Christmas breakfast. During 2010 we're starting three new traditions.
-Elf on the Shelf, because what's the point of Santa if you're not going to threaten your child to behave with a tiny spying elf from the North Pole? ;)
-For every new toy they get, they have to pick one to give away. We're not going to help them select a toy. Which is going to be really hard not to do! Inevitably the McDonald's toy will have a permanent residence in our home.
-When each child reaches age 5 they will serve the community and volunteer with us before Christmas. I'm most excited about this tradition and can't wait to show the boys the importance of service work and charity.
This year we are volunteering with our church as a part of the “Sandwich Brigade” with our five year old twins. Imagine an assembly line for sandwiches, hundreds of sandwiches, that will be delivered to local shelters, mission homes, or other needy groups. I'm using this opportunity to explain to our boys that not everyone has “a big Christmas breakfast” or even food to eat daily! I want them to be grateful for what we have, but more importantly, I want them to have compassion, understanding, and love for others. Hopefully this new tradition will kick off something much larger in our family!
Does your family celebrate the holidays with a special tradition?
2 comments:
Goodness, I haven't thought about Christmas breakfast in years!! Grits anyone?? Thanks, Dale! How about the Where's Waldo game that kept "Ah-heming" during your Dad's prayer?? Good times! So glad we have the same memories! I like the Elf on the Shelf, the service and picking a toy to give away. Now is the time to teach our kids that there are others out there... the world doesn't revolve around them!! Go figure, right?! Merry Christmas! I hope yours is wonderful!
My favorite part about Christmas was after opening the gifts we had a large family breakfast. I can't wait to keep doing that when my little family gets started.
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