I love christmas traditions...

I have so many traditions for Christmas sometimes I overwhelm myself trying to squeeze them all in. Luckily as I have gotten more mature I have realized it can still be a tradition if you miss a year now and then-but they are all so fun and festive. I love holidays-birthdays, anniversaries, valentine's, st Patrick's, you name it...but Christmas takes the cake. Here are some of my favorite traditions we have been doing around the McIntyre household:

Attending a performance of The Nutcracker Ballet. Last year we went to Riverside Ballet, this year to one for kids at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. We went with the Foors, which is always fun since they are our best friends. The girls were all fancy and so well behaved. My favorite is the Sugar Plum Fairy because of her skirt and the fact that I wish I were a ballerina or at least a dancer. I am kinda dance challenged-though I try, and I took ballet as a girl. When I was four that was what I was going to be when I grew up. I just found out that Adam does not enjoy this tradition of mine-maybe I need to save my pennies and take him to a real fancy performance. My Grandma Jo always took me to those swanky ones so I guess I can see the magic that he can't.

Making Cookies and Fudge. This is an old photo-but it tells you how good my fudge is. (Not to brag-but I will). I make butter horns which are equally as fabulous and an secret family recipe from the McIntyre side-seriously I couldn't have the recipe until we were married and then I had to go over and actually make them with my mother in law (so don't even ask for the recipe). I am looking for my own famous cookie as these are both hand me downs, but haven't found the perfect one, so I make a different one each year.

Watching the Balboa Boat Parade. This one is something I grew up in as I am from Orange County as a kid. We love it! We bundle up, go down for dinner at the Fun Zone, ride the ferry over to the island, walk the row of fancy houses all decorated with parties going on (it always seems funny that we common folk are staring in the open sliders at older white rich people in black slacks and red sweaters having foofy holiday parties...). Then we find a spot on the concrete edge of the sidewalk and watch the decorated boats go by with their sound systems blaring holiday music. We bring coco and a blanket and have a blast. Other people have not always seen the magic, but this year we brought the Reids. And they saw the magic. We love them!

Seeing Christmas Lights on Houses...esp. the Chino Lights. Adam is a fiend for Christmas lights. He is very opinionated, and likes white on our house-all facing the same direction. Aaron Foor thought it was me that made him do lights with such passion-but no it is ALL him. We have a great metallurgy Nativity that was custom made for us by Carl Wolnisty on the lawn. It is very nice, but we are thinking of going to LED next year now that they are less expensive and easier to find. I just love the twinkly lights. It is so festive and fun. Some years we drive around Riverside with coco in the car and others we get out to Chino to walk the streets of the neighborhood. Not this year, but some years.

Decorating the house with our tree and collection of Nativities. We started out buying one a year, but we have had 10 Christmases and have about 30 nativities, so I think we buy more than the quota. We have them from all genres now and even have a few from other countries, I love them. I don't decorate with any other symbols of the season really, but that with some garland on the doorways make the house look so festive. We put it all up the day after Thanksgiving so we can enjoy it for the entire month.

Attending the Mission Inn Festival of Lights. We love downtown Riverside so this is a given. It is crazy crowed, but it is fun to be a part of it all. It just kicks off the season. They even have fireworks and Santa counts down to the lighting. There was a slight delay this year and the producer in me was fretting the transition and downtime-but it was perfect as always.

Going caroling. We don't always get to this one-but I grew up with it. Jon and Kathy are throwing a party and I am so excited. My family would always carol at a convalescent home and give care packages or go to shut ins. We did this at a family reunion a few years ago and it was such a beautiful thing to sing and see their faces light up. I should start that here.

Celebrating Advent and Counting Down to Christmas. I grew up in a Presbyterian church and my grandparents are Methodist so the advent wreath was big growing up. It is so nice to snuggle up and read a Christmas story and talk about the ways we can love Jesus more and help people more at Christmas time. And I LOVE the whole countdown thing-the anticipation is one of the best parts of the holiday for me. We have a candy filled advent cupboard that has a daily devotional with it, a felt scene nativity and (my favorite) and stocking line with little stocking stuffers each day for the kids. It has been good this year for Agatha with her number recognition 1-30 that we have been working on in homeschool.

Sending out Christmas cards. I love to get them and read about the year and see pictures. It is such a nice way to keep in touch with people throughout life that have stayed dear to my heart if not in my daily life. I sent 160 this year and could have send 200 if it wasn't so expensive! In a time of email and Internet it almost seems so novel and quaint to send something through the mail and get them in the mailbox. Adam thinks it is fun and participates, but really doesn't care...whenever I am laboring over the list of sendees he always says "Cut them-it's fine-it doesn't matter...boys!

Giving to others in need. We try to do this over the whole year, but this time of year just seems to stand out. There are so may opportunities from Operation Christmas Child through Aggie's preschool, Angel Tree (kids of people in jail) at church, toy drives, etc. But my favorite are the years we have had a family in our lives or people that we have given to specifically. One year when I was a preteen my parents gave everything from dishes, a dining room table, a tree, presents, Christmas dinner, to a bed to a family new to the country. We went over to deliver it and played with the kids all night. It was an amazing Christmas memory. We also spend a portion of our Christmas budget on something like goats in Haiti as our present to extended family and friends. We like to go through World Vision-kinda like Heifer International. My extended family started that one and we don't buy for each other-just for charity. It is such a better use of money and who really needs more stuff or another candle?

Christmas Shopping. On that note I do love to give gifts...it is my love language. I shop all online though. I did one jaunt at Target this year and I was bushed! I love shopping in my PJs during nap and having the box delivered. I have 6 boxes in my front room right now...waiting for wrapping. We wanted to buy Chicco bags (mini canvas bags that fit in a purse or diaper bag) for all the wrapping of presents this year to reduce waste-but that is added cost and we just couldn't do it. Green is expensive sometimes! You do what you can.

Santa's lap. My kids know that Santa is not real (and hopefully I have coached them well enough to not spoil the secret for yours), but we do teach on the magic of Christmas. We talk about the gift of Jesus and the legend around the real St Nicholas. We talk about how Santa is a symbol and a fun way to use our imaginations to celebrate all that. Aggie puts on the Santa hat and we all stuff each other's stockings and eat the cookies and carrots. We pretend Santa things for fun and wink afterward. It is fun. Everywhere we go there have been Santas and she has sat on three laps with minimal line waiting. Though, her first Santa this year was a Nordstrom Santa and after that all other's pale in comparison. The second one got "Is that beard real?" He said "Ho, ho, it itches like it is..."

Christmas at Disneyland. Oh the lights-nobody does lights like Disney. And the castle is amazing. I love the fake snow. The parade could use a reboot, but it is still magical. We went with the Reids this year and saw the reindeer in Sants's village, took Gwyn on Dumbo for the first time and had a wonderful day with the girls.

New Christmas Dresses. My mom used to make them for us at Christmas and Easter, but I waited in Black Friday lines for 45 minutes for these matching Mandarian beauties-does that count? Aren't they cute? Aggie sang a spontaneous Silent Night at our Staff Christmas party this night. She loves to perform!

Happy Birthday Jesus Party. We always got the kids together to celebrate Jesus' birthday with cupcakes, crafts, games and a story time. We didn't this year. I miss my friends!

SO I am sure there are others, but these are what stand out. I LOVE Christmas traditions...got any good ones?