Tradition's

I had originally had this post planned for later this week but then totally remember that the fabulous Miss Becky over at From Mrs. To Mama has this great link up going on about showing everyone your traditions. So go on over to her blog and link on up!



Traditions are big in our family, especially when it comes to Christmas. As a kid my parent's and grandparent's gave my brother and I a new ornament each year to hang on our tree. Now at the age of 27 I have 27 plus ornament's hanging on our tree symbolizing my childhood and significant events in my life. This tradition was something that we wanted to continue with Gianna.We went to Hallmark and got a Baby's first Christmas ornament for our tree this year. Other family member's also joined in and gave Gianna ornament's for our tree as well.
Here's a pic of some of the ornament's Gianna received this year.




Another tradition that my parent's did with us and that the hubs and I continue to do is the tradition of St Nick. I haven't met too many people that celebrate this tradition except those from my hometown in WI. St Nick's is a German tradition. On the night of the 5th you lay out your shoes or stocking and during the night St Nick comes and leaves you little treats. You will also get a potato or coal if you are bad or an orange if you were good that year. Then typically you will find some other sort of goodie's. My husband and I have done this every year so far and we did it again with Gianna this year. I can't wait until she actually knows what's going on!

Another tradition that we plan on doing deals with Santa. As a kid we used to write a letter to Santa and go visit him at the local mall. The night before Christmas we would lay out our milk, cookies and sugar for the reindeer and then my brother and I would camp out under the Christmas tree in the hopes of catching Santa Claus in action. It never worked!
My parent's had so much fun leaving a trail of sugar tracks to the back door as if the reindeer had actually come inside. Some years Santa even left his gloves or a bell behind. That day he would usually make an arrival at our house to come back and pick up the item's he forgot. It took us year's to figure out that it was either a family friend or my grandpa playing Santa. My dad still has the Santa suit to this day and I can't wait to continue that tradition with Gianna

Another tradition was the Pickle ornament. My brother and I each had our own pickle ornament on the tree. The point is to hide them and whoever finds one first gets an extra present. Since my mom didn't want either of us to be excluded we both got extra gifts. These were usually found hidden in our bed's on Christmas Day. We always knew that after we came home from celebrating with family that one extra gift would await us. We would run into our room's, tear our beds apart and find the little extra gift that Santa left us.This was the perfect ending to a perfect day

And finally some other tradition's include watching Christmas movies, decorating the christmas tree, and both the inside and outside of the house. Driving around to look at lights, going to a Christmas parade, dressing up in our christmas pj's when opening present's, visiting Santa and making Christmas cookies

In the year's to come I want to start the Elf on a shelf tradition. I've seen so many cool blogs about it. I also want to do the 24 books of Advent. Where every day in December the kid's open a Christmas themed book. I think that is such a neat idea

I am so excited to start all these tradition's with Gianna and to start new one's that she will carry on to her kid's one day