Christmas Traditions

Camden is at such a fun age now - - he was excited about Christmas last year, but I think even then it was all a bit overwhelming for him. This year, he and I have had a lot of fun putting up decorations, talking about Santa, and counting the "sleeps" left until Christmas day, every morning while we are having breakfast. One thing I really love is being able to create our own family traditions that we'll have each year. A lot of what I love about Christmas, though, comes from the great memories that I have, with my parents and my brother. I loved that we stayed in our p.j.'s for as long as we wanted, and made a big mess of the living room. My brother always passed out the gifts, and we opened them one at a time, taking turns. I always liked it that way, because it made it last so much longer! Many times, when I think about Christmases past, this picture comes to mind - - matching jammies. This picture was taken in 1974, so I was two, Kevin was 6, and my Dad there in the corner, was 33. Holy cow I about freaked out when I realized he was only 33 at the time! I don't know if we had matching jammies any year after that, but for whatever reason, I love Christmas jammies. If it wasn't for the fact that I know my husband would laugh in my face if I attempted to outfit all of us in matching Christmas attire, you'd better believe I'd have each one of us decked out. Oh well. At least I can buy them for the boys. Camden actually picked the jammies this year - - Carter's has the best Christmas pajamas. He looked them all over until he found just the right ones. They've been washed and are ready to go under the tree, for the boys to open on Christmas Eve.

Steve is away at drill this weekend, so the boys and I have spend a quiet weekend, bound to the house (as we are without a car!). We've managed to get quite a bit of playing done, along with some cookie-baking, reading, and general mess-making. Griffin has pretty much decided to give up his morning nap, which sort of cramps mine and Camden's style, I must admit. So, we are readjusting our way of doing things. As soon as Griffin went down this afternoon, our project was to set up our nativity set. Camden's been very excited to do this, as he is currently obsessed with the nativity scene at a church on the next block. As we walked to the library the other night, he stopped to check it out, and then asked if we could come back later and put a blanket over the baby Jesus, because he thought he looked cold. It cracked me up, because I had just been reading about the book, Angela and the Baby Jesus, by Frank McCourt. I think I will definitely have to get him this book now! Once we had everything out of their boxes, we read The Story of Christmas, and I'm quite sure it finally all clicked for him. Of course he wants me to keep the nativity set on the floor, but I'm pretty sure it will be on top of the china cabinet before Griffin wakes up.