25 Days of Christmas

While at Dad and Diane's house for Thanksgiving, Diane gave me the Family Fun magazine issue for December. I have been to the website often for ideas. Josh's pirate cake came from there and they had some great costume ideas (sadly, I couldn't talk either of the boys into being a human Lego). But this magazine issue has some great ideas I have decided to incorporate into our Christmas preparations. Jason and I have always had the goal of developing strong traditions around holidays, but the implementation has always been thwarted by the quick pace of time and life in general. We have been blessed to live near family with whom we can share these days, but I still have wanted to have traditions that were specific to our family. With this magazine in hand, I have decided that this is the year for Miller Family Christmas traditions to start. Of course, it helps that Josh and Michael are old enough to participate and enjoy activities.

One of my favorite ideas was having an activity planned for every day. Our 25 days of Christmas. I spent Sunday making a list (and checking it twice) and creating a calendar of Christmas activities ranging from visiting the temple to see the lights to Christmas crafts to reading the scriptures about the birth of Christ to seeing Santa on the train. I am excited to end every day as a family doing something to remind us and prepare us for Christmas. Last night we made Christmas trees with craft sticks and tonight we are going to make snowmen stamps to make our Christmas cards. Friday we will (finally) put up our decorations.

I love this time of year and hope that my kids will grow to have wonderful memories of Christmas.