And don't yell at me that I am skipping Thanksgiving by being exciting and prepping for Christmas already. I would pretty gladly skip Halloween but I LOVE Thanksgiving and the long weekend, all the family time, and delicious foods; it's easily in my top 5 weekends of the year (right up there with my birthday and Christmas and Easter and...I haven't really thought this whole list out but I LOVE Thanksgiving weekend). I consider Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years all part of the same wonderful holiday season where I am actually willing to leave my house on the regular for social things and want to soak it all in.
Here's what's on our family fun list for this most wonderful time of the year. This list could also be called "our annual Christmas season traditions" because I realized we do basically the same things every single year.
Night of Lights
Going downtown, seeing all the lights get lit, it might be my favorite time to be downtown out of the whole year (even though I will miss the ease of our bike parking when we are fighting crowds). We've only missed once or twice due to rain in the past 10 years and it's the best way to kick off the long holiday weekend (when it's not raining).
Have a Date with my Husband
We are SO BAD about out the house solo date nights. We typically just have evening sitters when there is some larger social thing going on so a night out just the two of us would be SO SO nice.
Decorate Christmas Tree while Watching White Christmas
This is just Luke and I, Matt will help get the tree in the stand and hang lights but then the ornaments are all me, with an assist from Luke. (Am I worried how a very mobile and wants to put everything in his mouth baby is going to do with a Christmas tree? Yes. But Luke and the tree and ornaments all survived Luke's baby year.)
Take Godson on an outing
We like to gift experiences and then take forever to actually take the kid on the experience. We are super on top of things. But I have been talking to my sister about making this happen in the next few weeks. Talking isn't doing but we are making progress!
Decorate Christmas Cookies while watching classic tv specials
Long tradition, we DVR'd all the classic tv specials years ago (Charlie Brown, Rudolph, Frosty, Grinch) and watch them while frosting sugar cookies. I love this. I also love not having to frost the cookies myself. Luke just loves frosting.
Festival of Lights
Last year was the first year we did this but it was really fun. We drive through a local park that has all these light displays set-up. We saw them starting this when hiking last month and it's always crazy to see the full displays up less than 2 months later.
Wrap Presents while watching The Holiday and Love Actually
This is just me, obviously the kids aren't watching either of those, but I always wrap at least part of the stack while watching these. This year might be even easier because I can do this while Luke is at school and Sam is napping and don't have to worry about any kids walking in at inopportune times.
Watch The Polar Express on Christmas Eve Eve
Ideally with hot chocolate and popcorn because if I'm not going to let the 5 year old drink hot chocolate on the new-ish white-ish rug right before Christmas, when will I? (Will I regret this? Probably.)
Chinese on New Years
Chinese is one of about 5 meals Luke is guaranteed to eat and New Years is one of the guaranteed times of year we will pick it up. We all love this. Sam excluded. He will eventually.
What fun things do YOU have planned this Christmas season? We could always add some new traditions!
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