Someone asked me the other day what Christmas traditions our family has.  As I thought about it the answer came out …  ALOT.

Now even with all these traditions, Todd and Kinsey both said today that they felt like we needed more Christ in our Christmas.  So help me out here, what traditions can I incorporate that will add a spiritual element to our month long celebration?  IDEAS IDEAS PLEASE!

Some of our current Traditions:

Tradition 1 – To start we put up the tree together the Saturday following Sydney’s Birthday.  This came from my Bishop when I was younger who upon finding out I was due to have Kinsey close to Christmas went on a rant about how awful it is to have a birthday around Christmas.  he definitely had some issues there he needed to discuss with a therapist, but I listened and so we do not begin celebrating Christmas until AFTER Dec. 1st.

Tradition 2 – We have a book.  You know that book your mom made in relief Society one night so that you can have a scripture and a story and a carol every night in December to help you remember the true meaning of Christmas?  We have that book too.   The girls love it.  And it does help you remember the real meaning of all this hustle and bustle we do.

Tradition 3 – St. Nicolas day.  December 5th my girls put their shoes by the front door and when they wake up the next morning they are filled with treats!  This year they got water from 3 different countries and jewelry.

Tradition 4 - Letters to Santa.  the girls still write letters to Santa with lists of things they would like to have and lists of things they know will irritate me.  Like asking for a baby brother… oy.  We tape the letters to the door post outside and Santas elves come and wisk them away in the night and leave letters for them in return from Santa.  Santa has done this for a more than a decade now and doesn’t aim to quite any time soon.

Tradition 5 (a new one)- This year we didn’t let the girls buy each other gifts.   Instead they had to make them or do a service.  It worked out so well I think we will be keeping this one around for some time.  They were so thoughtful with their gifts, more thoughtful then they have ever been.  It was lovely.

Tradition 6 - Light looking.  Todd and I both remember fondly nights as children when we would drive for hours thought neighborhoods in search of wonderful light displays.  And so we carry that on with our own girls.  Though we tend to frequent macMansion neighborhoods and the the girls and I drool over houses more than the lights these days.  :D

Tradition 7 – All hail the dreidel king!  We play dreidel.  This stems from two things actually, one Todd’s love of all tings Jewish, and two Kinsey and Sydney’s preschool days at Keneseth of Israel.   Every year I buy gold chocolate coins and we play dreidel and crown a dreidel King.  This year it was Todd.

Tradition 8 – Hermie.  Todd has a deep and unending love for the movie Rudolf the Red nosed reindeer.  Whether its the politically incorrect Santa or the iconic pop cultural nature of the movie, your guess is as good as mine.  But every year we watch it as a family  we even have large stuffed representations of Hermie, Rudolf, and Cornelius.

Tradition 9 – Christmas Adam.  This one started a few years ago beause Todd had to go to a UK game for work on December 23rd.  We thought the girls might like to hang out with Gma & Gpa that day why we were at the game and they suggested they spend the night.  Well they had so much fun baking cookies and playing games that it stuck.  they go up every year now leaving Todd and I a day to prep for Christmas (ie wrapping) and we travel up for Christmas Eve celebrations the next day.  (Christmas Adam you ask?  because Adam came before Eve!).

Tradition 10 – Ham.  Todd always bakes a Christmas Ham for Christmas Eve Dinner.  Every year he tries a new and exciting glaze.  This year it was a coke and honey glaze.  Yum!

Tradition 11 - Gingerbread houses.  We decorate them.  Its a MUST!  No I don’t bake them…. who does that?  And no we don’t eat them…. who does that?  But they sit on the table until Christmas is over and them I toss them.  They are pretty and festive.

Tradition 12 – Christmas Cards.  I send them because I love to get them!  I sent 80 this year and got 30 back.  Not bad in a down economy.   We tape them to the stairs it makes for a lovely decoration and we get excited when we fill up all the spots!  Which we did this year… YEAH!

Tradition 13 – A Christmas Eve present from Mom.  There is always waiting under the tree a present for the girls when we come home Christmas Eve Night from me.  now I always say it could be anything…. I mean ANYTHING!  Who knows what will be in those brightly colored wrappings?  But the girls claim its ALWAYS PJ’s.  Todd says its a “present of possibilities”.  I like that better!

Tradition 14 - A letter.  After the present of possibilities the girls prepare a group letter for Santa penned by Dad and prepare a few cookies some reindeer treats and milk for Santa.  Now this letter can get interesting.  one year it claimed Santa was a stalker.   This year it begged to sacrifice all their gifts so that Dad could have an X-box.

Tradition 15 - The Christmas Story.  As the final point before bed Todd read the girls Luke 2.  I know you all do this as well, but its such a sweet moment every year.  And we end with family prayer.

Tradition 16 – Sleigh bells.  At 9:00 sharp Santa rides over the house and rings his bells to tell the girls its time for bed.  He has done this since they were babies.  And still does it today.  While other parents try to get their children to sleep on Christmas eve, ours are fast asleep for fear Santa will pass them by if they aren’t!

Tradition 17 - The girls gifts are wrapped in their own paper.  I did this when they were little to keep from having to write their names on everything.  and now its a full blown tradition.  Todd even takes great pains to pick out the paper every year.  He says its his contribution.  LOL

Tradition 18 – The gifts.  For all the craziness that is Christmas shopping, there is a method to my madness.  I decided when they were little that no matter how poor we were there would always be at least three things under the tree for the girls.  Something to read, something to keep warm, and something to make them feel pretty.

Tradition 19 – Christmas Day sleep over.   We spend Christmas Day with Todd’s parents and the girls spend the night there and help de-decorate on the 26th.

Tradition 20 – Cookies for the neighbors.  Self explanatory.

 

Kinsey has an important announcement for you regarding her audition for the 2012 South Oldham high School Musical….

 

For your viewing pleasure I captured Kinsey’s audition piece as she practiced the night before the audition.  She did so good!  I am a proud momma!

 

Sydney went to her fist LDS dance this Saturday!  AHHH!  How cute is that!  I had 2, count them 2 girls dancing the night away.  They were so pretty. I had to take pics. We went with a car load od excited girls to the dance.  Meghan, Sydney’s friend from church who was also going to her first Dance. and Kinsey’s friends Sarah and Emma. It was a huge 6 Stake dance, I have never seen a larger dance!  It was awesome.  And I got to go and see all the fun.

 

My bestie… HI BESTIE!… Sent me pics of the best holiday craft I have seen in ages!  It was so easy and so fun the girls had a blast making them.  So I shall share.  First the pics… taking with my crappy iPhone 3g camera.

Awesome right!  So I found a youtube video that explains how to make them.  You will need:

• 6 pieces of regular white paper (Folded and cut into a square like you are making a cootie catcher)
• Scotch Tape
• Stapler
• Scissors

I do a few things different than she does, but its a preference.  I prefer stapling the sides of the curls into a six long straight line before making the flake.  Once mine are stapled into a straight line I gather 3 points in one hand and three in the other then stack them point over point just like you did when taping the curls and staple them that way.  The staple the last side and the snow flake is finished.   I don’t like the way she stapled her middle.  Here is a pic of how I do the middle.

 

On to the video tutorial!

 

 

And this woman does a tiny one for an ornament!

This guy does it more like mine:

Me… Next year I want to make them out of white plastic sheets to hang outside! Wouldn’t that be brilliant?!!!

I have been a little lack luster on the blogging since school started, so I thought I would do a quick top ten to try and catch up.  So here goes…

The top ten things going on with Nicole since school started you may or may not know about:

10.  Got to go to a UofL basketball game with Todd and we were in the Suite!  Gol, I love being married to him, the perks are unreal!

9.  Todd was named a 40 under 40 (that’s 40 up and coming business men under the age of 40) by Business first.  It was AWESOME!  There was an awards luncheon and gifts and everything.  I got a Tiffany crystal bowl out of the deal, pretty sweet I’d say!

8.  Finally got around to getting my hair cut.  First hair cut in my entire life that I loved walking out of the salon.  And no one noticed at Thanksgiving.  hahaha!

7.  I hosted Thanksgiving at my house for the first time!  It was awesome, I loved it!  If people would email me pictures I would blog about it.  But do they?  No…  I was too busy cooking epic food to take photos.  I only have two hands people!

6.  We switched from cable to ATT U-verse.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.  So far so good.  Internet is as fast as cable was and we have more ESPN channels than any human could possibly watch, so Todd is happy!

5.  I am working more hours consulting now.  My biggest client asked me to take on some extra PR work.  Its scary, but I am learning so much.  and the money is nice.

4.  I bought two sweaters.  I had to throw that in cause really, buying clothes for myself in a house full of girls is an event that needs to be heralded!

3.  I made a movie.  You all already know that but it was such a huge part of the last two months I had to include it.  Here is the link if you haven’t seen it.

2.  I was given the great honor to direct the youth Choir for Stake Conference.  Over 150 youth, and me.  It was an awesome experience.

1.  And I was asked to go to girls camp for 2012!  I was worried I wouldn’ t be asked to go because we have a new YW president.  I wanted to so very badly because I will have all three girls at camp this year!  ALL THREE!  I was asked by the Stake to be over the music for camp.  I am super excited!  Todd isn’t, poor guy was planning on a baseball road trip that week and just found out he has a business trip.  But I am thrilled!  And the girls are too!

 

Today is her birthday na na na na na na!  We had some good fun today!  See the pics… feel the excitement!

14!!!!

I forgot all about this video, found it on my camera today.  :D  A bit for Halloween!  hahaha

 

It was talent show day at South Oldham Middle!  And no Thanksgiving is complete without seeing one of my girls sing.  As the 2010 winner of SOMS Idol Sydney was asked to come back and sing during judges deliberation to entertain the crowd.

Last night she started complaining of her throat hurting, and sure enough by wake-up time this morning her voice was frog city!   But she endured.  After a brief pit stop at Starbucks for some emergency hot cocoa and downing an entire package of throat lozenges she was as ready as she would ever be to give it ago.   Froggy or not, Syd rocked it out!  Todd missed the first two lines of the song in the video, but you get the picture.  I promised Syd I would re-record her when she is feeling better.

Here she is!

Two frogs.

One pinch of Prom Queen.

and a slice of Cheerleader.

That is our Halloween reciepe for a good time!  check out these cuties!

The spare frog is Tatie’s bestie.  They made a cute pair.  They were Rib & Bit.  :D The even had a little routine… I’m Rib.  And I’m Bit.  And together we are… RIB-BIT!

Kinsey spent Halloween night out with friends who happened to have spare boots at their houses and wore them in the spirit of camaraderie!  (XC runners – go figure they would all have walking boots…hahaha)

Sydney had her bestie over and they headed out as flapper and prom queen to break hearts all over the neighborhood.  We found Sydney’s dress for $15 at JC Penny’s on the clearance rack.  Nice!

All in all another wonderful Halloween!

Kinsey Loohoo sang at her fall choir concert last night!  She did a great job!  So proud of her!  For all our friends and Aunties who couldn’t be there, here she is!  Her solo ends the song. O’ Happy Day!