'Tis the Season

I'm so excited for Christmas this year. John and I have been together for 8 Christmases now, 5 married or engaged. And now this is our second (!) Christmas with Charlie. I have been really thinking about creating traditions for our little family and being protective of our time together, just the three of us. John and I are talking about what we want our Christmas and our month of December to look like in the future and beginning to lay those foundations. I'm also stripping away the extraneous things that clutter our life and that we don't particularly enjoy.

So far we have decorated our Christmas tree with unbreakable ornaments on the lower branches. Charlie is very into the tree this year- last year he wasn't that interested in it. This year, every ornament is a ball that needs to be thrown across the room.

John and I put up the Christmas lights outside. Instead of lining the roof line like we do every year, we decided to change it up and string 4 strands of colored lights on the aspen tree by our door.

We began reading some of our Christmas picture books under the Christmas tree. John's family does this leading up to Christmas and it's one of my most favorite things to do now. I still remember the first year John and I cuddled up under the Christmas tree and read some books (it was before we had even kissed for the first time). Charlie definitely has the attention span of a toddler, so we made it through about 1 page but the important part to me is that we're doing it.

I bought Charlie a pair of Christmas pajamas to open on December 1st and wear throughout December. That was the plan anyway. What really happened is I forgot about them until last night when I didn't have any clean pj's for him after his bath. He was shivering and cold and I remembered the Christmas jammies and ripped open the package for him. Oh well. He looks pretty cute in them.

John has We have amassed quite the collection of hot cocoa, apple cider and wassail and we're doing our best to consume it all. It's pretty great to snuggle on the couch under a blanket with a mug of something hot in my hand.

I've had Christmas music on and it always makes me so cheerful. One of my favorite things is finding new music to add to our collection every year.

This year, I added Michael Buble's Christmas songs, Ingrid Michaelson's Snowfall, and many songs by Sufjan Stevens. I'm also listening to favorites from the last few years, including Fictionist's This Christmas (it's FREE!) and the Hotel Cafe presents Winter Songs. I even found an album from my childhood, called An Angel Tree Christmas, that my mom loved (and loves!) and we listened to constantly. And from John's youth, Mannheim Steamroller is a must.

What are your favorite traditions? What are you going to forego this year?