Making the Holidays special without going broke!

When I think of Christmas several things come to mind:

• Jesus' birth
• family and traditions
• cold weather and staying cozy inside
• Christmas music
• yummy food that is only eaten at this time of year

I have been blessed with so many wonderful Christmas memories, I could tell you stories for hours. Our family traditions have changed over the years as we kids have grown and moved out on our own. I have continued several traditions that were part of my childhood. One example is Christmas breakfast, I make the same Spanish Omelet that we ate growing up. At our house we also open Christmas stockings first. When we were kids we would wake my parents and then we could start on our stockings while they got up and ready to start opening presents.

When Bill and I married we started a few traditions with his kids and we have kept them going with our kids, one is to read the story of Jesus' birth before opening gifts. I do love the gift giving and as a child I loved the receiving but I always want our children to understand the reason we celebrate Christmas.

At our home we love to bake and Sydney and I have always made sugar cookies and decorated them. I come up with several Christmas crafts to do throughout the month. My mom gave me the idea to wrap a Christmas book for Sydney to unwrap and read each day leading up to Christmas. So much fun we will be repeating again this year. Sydney and I made cinnamon ornaments for her teachers last year and also for some family. We are already working on making ornaments to give as gifts this year. Personally I think a hand made gift is so personal and full of thought. I will share pictures of what we made this year soon.

We also try to give to a charity each season. We are making a great effort to teach our children that we are so blessed and God calls us to share our blessings with others.

This season will be filled with crafts, baking, yummy food, cozy times snuggled by the fire, reading Christmas stories and the Bible and a few gifts. So much fun and not very costly at all.

What are your memories of Christmas and what traditions do you participate in?