Holiday Traditions

One that's quickly catching on, that the whole family loves, is helping my Grandma set up her Christmas Village. She has something like 100 little ceramic houses from the Charles Dicken's collection, that she sets up all over her living room, along with treese, cotton for snow, and little ceramic people. It's really quite a project, and now that my grandparents are getting old, they enlist our help to put set it up. The houses have been around since before i can remember, and i truley feel like christmas is coming when i see them.

A tradition for my family is to buy a tree on Fourth Advent. We usually decorate it the next day, giving it time to thaw out.

On Christmas Eve, we spend time with either sets of my family. My grandma, Aunt and Uncle on my mom's side, or my Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle on my dad's side. We would then see the other side of the family on Christmas day. This is the first year we will have to break the chain, because my aunt and uncle from The Netherlands are flying out to spend christmas with us, and they want to go to my grandparent's Christmas Eve service, and my family has to be at our's, as my mom's the choir director, and my dad, my sister, and I are all in the choir. I'm also playing music for some of the service. So we're double stepping the tradition this year, and seeing my mom's side of the family (who go to the same church as us anyways) on Christmas Eve two years in a row.

Also, a tradition is playing A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi repeatedly on our CD player. Great album that one.

Jam it back in, in the dark.