Traditions

As with many families, we have many traditions that we do this time of year.  Since I haven't had the time to blog about each event this year, I hope this summary will capture the fun (well, fun most of the time....) we have each time. 

1) Christmas Tree Hunting and Cutting Down
The day after Thanksgiving, we always get a jump start on Christmas and head out to cut down our tree.  It's an event we all look forward to, and on the way there we hope to have a Santa sighting.  I usually have this anticipation of a wonderful family outing.  Since it is Garrett's first Christmas, this year was no excpetion.  Once we got there, Corbinn decided to act, well, like a 4 year old and ended up in a time out in the truck before we even got ready to look for a tree.  So, Garrett, Cheryl & I headed out in the pouring down rain and made the executive decision on the first tree we liked.  It was POURING down rain so it didn't take long for us to realize we were not being picky this year.  That said, we wer NOT going to be the ones to chop it down.  She stood by the tree, while I went out to relieve Mike from being the "time out" parent to the "christmas tree" parent.  From start to finish it was a 20 minute outing.  No pictures, no lovely family outing touring through the tree farm.  Something tells me we're not the only family that has had a family outing such as this.   

2) A Christmas weekend getaway
Usually, we head up to the Mountains with Mom, Peg, Wes and girls to enjoy a little bit of snow and sledding to get us in the Christmas spirit.  After 3 years of messing with the passes, we decided to head West this year and go to our favorite house in Seabrook.  It was a wonderful weekend spent watching the kids play together, watching Garrett learning to pull himself up, and playing Uno.  It was a perfect blend of activities, relaxing and Christmas spirit. 

The boys in thier Christmas jammies. 

While we were in Seabrook, "Santa" came by in a firetruck.  Hmmm, I wonder what Santa did before the tour on the fire truck?

 3) The Star on the Christmas Tree
This year we finally have a star for the top of our tree.  Corbin was super excited about it and wanted to be the one that puts the star on top.  I'm pretty sure he'll want to do this again next year.  We'll see if Daddy can still lift him that high.

4) Visiting Santa
The last couple of years, we've visited Santa on the Santa train.  This year, we went back to the Santa at Molbak's.  They have a beautiful display, samples of Kringle and a short line.  What could be better!?

Corbin's letter to Santa asking for Hungry Hungry Hippos.  The letter even has wrapping instructions: a rectangle box, with dark pink wrapping with white stars and a big pink bow. 

The obilgatory Santa picture.  They both did great, and Garrett kept looking at him like, "Who are you, and why did my Mommy put me here?!"

Corbin was thrilled with his candy cane.

5) The Chipmunks Christmas
Since Corbin was aware of music, he has loved the Chipmunks Christmas CD.  He knows each and every word to each song, and has begun singing them around the house.  I find myself turning down any other music or background noise, and even finding ways to trick Garrett into being quiet just so I can hear him sing better.  Of all the songs, he hasn't quite mastered the lyrics to Rudolph.  His rendition goes something like this....."...as they shouted out with me.  Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer, you'll go down and say sorry!"

We're very fortunate to have many traditions still ahead of us this year.