Christmas Traditions

I absolutely LOVE this time of year, mostly for the traditions that come with it! Christmas was of course always so much fun growing up, but I have to say it is a ton of fun to watch my own kids this time of year. 

We have started some of our own traditions and some my whole family have been doing for years. 

Christmas Eve

Every year on Christmas Eve my mom's side of the family goes to my Nanny & Papa's

house (which has for the past three years been conveniently located right next door) 

and we have our big family Christmas! My Nanny makes one of her amazing meals

and we exchange gifts! I wish I had a picture of my grandparent's tree! It

is always so extravagant and beautiful!

Here are a couple pictures from past Christmas Eve's 

Christmas Lights

This is probably my very favorite tradition! I love looking at 

Christmas Lights! When we were little my parents and grandparents

used to take us to look at lights and I love this now with my boys. 

I remember when my grandparents lived in McKinney we

used to drive through neighborhoods that had different

themes on every street!

Now we live very close to some of the best neighborhoods for

lights in Dallas!  We always get hot chocolate and 

listen to Christmas music while driving around admiring

the lights! This year our album of choice has been 

the Glee Christmas Album.. favorite song.. You're A Mean

One, Mr Grinch!

This past Sunday Trey and I were laying on the couch

after church and he gave me a big kiss and said

"mom, do you want to go look at lights again

tonigh?" This boy knows the keys to my heart!

Gingerbread Houses

This tradition we just started last year when some of

our best friends had a house making party! I loved it. 

It usually ends in walls falling down disaster (at least for us) but 

it is totally fun regardless!

Elf On The Shelf

We also started this tradition last year when my good friend

Andrea told me about it. She let us borrow her Elf

and it was a huge hit with the boys, so I went and 

found our family an Elf this year! If you have small kids (who

still believe in Santa) you should totally look into this! We read

the book a couple times a week or so, and our Elf, who Trey named

Elfus, flies to the North Pole every night and tells Santa if the

boys have behaved that day. Then he flies back and is somewhere

else in the house. SO each morning the boys get out of bed

and look for the Elf! I will admit.. a couple times I have 

forgotten to move the Elf and I have had to make up a 

story about how the Elf was sick, or tired from the previous 

night etc.. hehe :) 

I will post later this week about some of the places I have put our Elf!

Northpark Trains & Santa

The mall near our house has a ton of FREE things for kids to

see around Christmas. Our Santa has been there for 20 something

years.. which totally helps the boys believe he is THE Santa Clause. 

The only downfall to Santa being so amazing is the line is forever

(literally sometimes 7 hours long). They hand out numbers

in the morning and you come back when it is your

time to visit Santa. Lucky for me, my good friend Chelsey

came to help this year!! They also have puppet shows,

 Bands, Carolers, and the Trains are the boys' favorite part! 

A huge display of Dallas and other major US

cities are shown all with trains going through them! It's really a sight!

Here are this year's pictures.. 

Please join me in sharing your Christmas traditions through my friend Libby & her

Christmas Traditions Linky Partay!!