Serendipity: Traditions

We have so many holiday tradtions, it's so much fun. I love every one of them. I hope the kids look back fondly on their childhood and carry on some of our traditions with their own families someday. :)

I love our countdown to Christmas. I made these advent cones last year for the kiddos. Each day they take down a cone and get a small treat or gift. Sometimes it's just a pack of gum or other small little yummy treat, but at least once a week they get a little bit of a bigger gift, so it's fun.

Since all 3 kids have their own set of 24 cones, it makes my house look super festive in the process! In fact I get kind of sad when we get down to the alst few days and there are only a couple cones left. I actually almost get sad when Christmas actually gets here, lol, because I love the season so much that having the day here means it's all coming to an end. :)

The boys cones go across the entryway into the dining room, one side is Bourbon's and one side is Roman's.

Starla's cones are over the window

Bourbon got a tiny Charlie Brown Christmas book and tree complete with ornament and Linus's blanket for the bottom of the tree. :)

Roman got a sock monkey complete with adoption papers and a how to take care of him kit in his first cone...

Starla got a ring pop in her first cone..

Thanks to my wonderful friend Kristal, we started a new tradition this year. We wrapped up 24 Christmas books and each night we unwrap one and read it together as a family. I own like 50 Christmas books (go figure.... :) ) so we have another basket of unwrapped ones next to the wrapped basket and we've been reading one out of each, lol. It's fun to open one though, even if they are almost all old books that we already owned, but I bout a couple of new ones....

Starla got to open the first one

Our first book was the Elf on the shelf!!! I've been wanting to get this the last couple of years but never did.

Starla named our Elf Grover. He keeps an eye on us to make sure we are being good, and each night when we go to bed he travels back to the North Pole to let Santa know how we've been, and then he appears back in our house somewhere new each day. :) Starla has been trying so very hard to be good..... :)

We are enjoying the family reading time. Starla opens one and either I or Alan reads it, then Roman opens & reads the next one, then Bourbon an then it comes back to Starla.