Okay everyone, get out your trusty fingers and type away, because I'm asking for your brilliant ideas for the holidays.
Slipshod has a rather large family, all local, and of course the whole clan gets together every Christmas. Some years we opt out of presents by telling the family in October or so that we just want to see them but are not going to participate in the gift-giving part of the fandango. Of course, since we had Sweet Pea we can only opt ourselves out (not the kids), which is what we have done this year. Happily, I opted us out following a gift opt-out by Slipshod's mom and step dad, and our opt-out was followed by two more from other parts of the family. So I've reserved the right to forcibly opt out all the other adults - they're off our gift list, anyway.
That still leaves my family but we're not as large and not the whole family gets together (due to siblings living in other parts of the country) so gifts aren't as big a deal for that bunch.
But - what I want to do now is start to make the holidays FUN. Not just for the kids, but for me and Slipshod too. We're going to start off shortly after Thanksgiving by taking the girls to a Christmas tree farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains to choose and cut our own tree. We did that with Sweet Pea last year and she still remembers it and we had so much fun that day.
Hopefully the scaled-back gift giving this year will allow Slipshod and I to have a lot more fun with the holidays, though since I offered our house for the get-together there will still be a bit of stress related to getting the place ready. However, thankfully it's understood that we always do potluck when the family gets together. This year might be extra special fun with the food because one young family member who works at Kinko's came up with the idea of everyone submitting 5 or more of their favorite recipes and she's going to put them all together with any pictures we send as well and make a nice cookbook for everyone. Slipshod and I are thrilled about this because there are so many things he loves that his mom, grandma, sister, etc. cook but we have never gotten all the recipes. Now they will be together all in one place and everyone has been requesting their favorites from each other.
Now that Sweet Pea remembers things so well and can really enjoy the holidays, besides the fun of getting the Christmas tree, I want to start some other holiday traditions.
What holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, New Year, etc.) traditions have you started with your family?
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4 comments:
My friend gifted me a subscription of Family Fun magazine for my birthday this year and they also have a website. This is a wealth of great ideas for the holidays. They have age appropriate craft ideas, fun holiday snacks to make and loads of stuff like that to do.
Have you ever thought about going Christmas Caroling? I know it sounds hokey, but when you get a group together it can be so much fun and the kids LOVE it. You can work on songs ahead of time and make a big production out of it.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Every year, my mother's side of the family rotates houses for the Christmas get together. I hosted in 2003 and I don't know if I want to do it again, because there are approx. 60 people on that side of the family. The only tradition we have is letting the kids decorate their own Christmas cookies! It's kind of fun!
Um, we fight. Sorry.
Well last year we started a small one...This year will be better.
Before REbecca wakes up on Xmas day. I'll go get Joes work boots-get them all dirty and put big boot prints coming out of the fire place all the way to the tree and back. Looking like Santa came down. And we'll make a big deal about Santa coming down the fire place. So far that's all.
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