12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge

Aly and Molly are hosting a fun little blog challenge!

It actually started about a week ago, but I couldn't do it because I was out of town for Thanksgiving. But I decided I would just get a late start!

Here are the topics:

Day 1: Christmas/Holiday traditions

Day 2: Black Friday/General Shopping Tips and Tricks

Day 3: Most meaningful gift/best gift you've received

Day 4: Tips/Tricks to a Budget Friendly holiday season

Day 5: Favorite Holiday Movie/TV Show Special

Day 6: Gift ideas (what do YOU want? We all have family/friends reading our blogs...so let them know!)

Day 7: Holiday Craft/DIY (If you don't make anything, what do you WISH you could make?)

Day 8: Least favorite thing about the Holidays

Day 9: Favorite Holiday recipe

Day 10: Favorite Christmas Songs/Caroles

Day 11: New Year Resolutions

Day 12: Show us your decorations (indoor/outdoor)

Day 13: Favorite Cookie Recipe

Day 14: Oprah's Favorite Things: What item(s) would you want if you were in the audience?

If you love Christmas, then join in the fun!

Day 1: Christmas Traditions

I love Christmas mornings at my parents' house. We would wake up and look through the gifts that Santa brought. Then we read scripture of Jesus' birth, sing happy birthday to Jesus, and blow out the candles on whatever we were having for breakfast. Then we would open the rest of our gifts and stockings. I just think that is a lovely tradition that I definitely want to carry on with my own family. I think it is so important to remind everyone (especially kids) that Jesus is the reason for the season, not Santa, or gifts, or food.

My family also loves games. All of us are very competitive (except for my mom- she is the peacekeeper) so we always play a few board games whenever we are together.

When I think of Christmas Eve, I think of watching The Christmas Story marathon until I can fall asleep. And I watch Elf every year...it never gets old!

Doug's family also has some wonderful traditions that I have enjoyed for the past 2 years. They have a White Elephant gift exchange, which I LOVE, and his Aunt Ginger plans lots of games for all of the kids to play. I thrive on competition, and I usually have a hard time letting kids win (whoops!) Some of these games include guessing how many M&Ms are in the huge jar (winner gets the M&Ms!), Christmas trivia, Christmas charades, pass the gift, and my favorite from last year, one-handed gift-wrapping! (Doug's cousin, Avery, and I were the champs of this one! :)

This year is very special because it is our first Christmas as husband and wife! I am so excited to carry on these traditions and to create our own. Since I will be heavily drugged on Christmas, we are going to pick a day before then and pretend that it is our Christmas morning.