Baby's First Christmas and Christmas Traditions

Wow December flew by!  We had such a fun Christmas time and I'm already sad to take down the tree and stockings and can't wait for next year.  We have some fun traditions and this Christmas felt a lot different having little Owen in our lives.  Even though he has no idea what Christmas is or the traditions we did, we felt Christmas and our traditions were more meaningful having Owen in our home.

Tradition 1: December Serving

Throughout all of December Chris and I before going to bed would talk about how we served that day.  In years past we had a calendar of December and would write down the service we did that day.  I think I'll go back to that next year, but anyway, it was great trying to have others as a top priority and thinking during the day how we could help someone else.

Tradition 2: White Elephant and Santa

With Chris' family we have not just a white elephant, but create white elephant gifts that tease other family members and that could have meaning to something else that happened during that year.  Anyway, the family loved Key and Peele's East/West Youtube so..... we created our own with our faces (I'm the first picture, Chris is the second).  

During white elephant Santa comes... I know him!  Owen was so good.

 And, here we are in our ugly sweaters.  I love O's little smile in this one.

Tradition 3: Christmas Eve

So we celebrate birthdays and Owen's baby blessing in our family.  The day was filled with family (my family was in town as well) and we have fun being together then before we go to bed we open one gift which has pjs (and a book and toy for O).  We cuddle up and read Luke 2.

Tradition 4: Santa Cookies and Elves

One tradition we started this year was making cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.  We also got a visit from Buddy the Elf (our Elf on a Shelf) who watched if Owen was being good this December.

Tradition 5: Scavenger Hunt

When Santa comes, he leaves a new ornament on our tree for each person.  After we open our gifts, we find our ornament which has our first clue to our Santa gift.  There are about 6-8 clues and then you find your gift!

Tradition 6: Gratitude, looking Back 2013

I know it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of presents on Christmas day, this year on Christmas for almost an hour we took time to think of what Christ has done for us this past year and how he has blessed us. This is definitely something we want to continue, we talked about what happened that year from the goals we set to our trips, to the many trials and the many blessings.  

We are so blessed and are grateful for the Christmas season to celebrate the birth of Christ, and remember how He lived his life and how we can follow His example.  I'm grateful for these and other fun traditions to not only help our little family get closer together, but to get closer to God.