Growing up in a house with two parents in the Retail business meant that the December was a crazy month for them and there wasn’t much time for anything else but work. We had a couple of events that I wouldn’t consider Holiday Traditions but they were things that we did every December.
First we would decorate the Christmas Tree, back then mauve was the “in” color so our tree had mauve lights and mauve decorations. At the time it was cool but looking back it was just one of those fads that we should have skipped because everything we had was mauve or had mauve in it; carpet, grout in the tile of the foyer, blinds, couch, dinning room chairs… you get the idea.
Then, we would have family over for Christmas eve, my mom and my aunt would have too much to drink (normally) and call my Grandparents, cry and tell them how much they missed them. Good times! My brother and I were able to open one present Christmas Eve, we knew what most of the presents were because we would peek through the bags of unwrapped presents my mom would “hide” in her bedroom closet. I’m not even going to mention that she made us wrap our own presents after she put them in boxes so we couldn’t see what they were while we wrapped them. Well, I guess I did just mention it…oops. (I’m surprised my brother and I aren’t more messed up than we are.)
Lastly, we would get up Christmas morning and open gifts. Then, my brother and I would go to our Dad’s house and my mom would usually go back to bed and watch movies since it was her only day off. My mom refused to have a TV in the Living Room because it was the “nice” room and the Family Room was in the basement and no one wanted to go down there but my Step-Dad so we were forced to be anti-social and watch TV in our bedrooms.
As you can see these are not traditional Holiday traditions and it wasn’t that my parents didn’t want to do the “normal” traditions it was that after working 12-14 hours a day 6 days a week for 5 weeks and my brother and I with our sports and other activities we just didn’t have time.
After I had OG Nate and I decided that we didn’t want our children to grow up in a home where both parents were in the retail business full-time so we decided I would become a stay at home mom. I’m determined to make the Holiday season special for our girls so I have come up with a couple of traditions that I want to start this year.
First, the girls will be able to open 2 presents Christmas Eve; one being a gift of their choice and the other will be Christmas jammies. I love the thought of them wearing them to bed Christmas Eve and then opening their presents Christmas morning in them.
Another Holiday tradition we will be doing this year is The Elf on the Shelf. The Elf on the Shelf is a little elf that watches over the kids and when the kids go to bed each night the elf returns to the North Pole and lets Santa know if the kid’s have been naughty or nice. When the kid’s get up in the morning the elf is back but in a different spot in the house and it will be fun for the girls to try to find . The kit also comes with a book to read with the kids about why the elf is in your home and it explains that the kids are not to touch the elf or he will disappear. I think this is a great idea because it answers the question: How does Santa know if I’ve been naughty or nice?
