Traditional.

My favorite time of year is here! Cool weather, leaves changing and falling, rain, and of course, the holidays. I already feel this anxiousness, and anticipation about Thanksgiving and Christmas! Some of my fondest memories are waking up Christmas morning, and having breakfast with my Aunt and Uncle, Grandmother, and cousins. Going around the room, and opening gifts one by one. The whole family would come over, and we'd spend the whole day together. Nowadays, it's not quite the same. A lot of stuff has happened in my family, and so there is only a small group of us that get together. It's still nice. Not quite the same, but still nice. I wish my whole family would still get together, but I still enjoy the time with my aunt (she is incredible, and is good at making things special) uncle, cousins, and of course, the hub. Matt's family is going though a lot of changes too, so things are a tad bit awkward, but we try to spend equal time with everyone.

Matt and I have some of our own Christmas traditions. We get our Christmas tree the day after thanksgiving, exchange a new ornament every year , name our tree (we're super dorky), we decorate it while listening to Christmas music, and drinking hot cocoa. We light it when we're all finished, and just sit and look at it for what seems like hours. There is just something that feels magical having a giant tree twinkling in all it's glory in your living room. Then we watch a Christmas movie (Last year it was elf-- and I'm guessing it will be the same this year because we love it). Christmas eve we exchange Pajamas, and then open our gifts and stockings early Christmas morning. Christmas eve and day are crazy because we try to spilt our time so we can see both of our families. So we spend the moments we have alone cherishing the time, and remembering the reason we celebrate to begin with.

I'm always interested in the special little traditions other people have to make the season more special. Feel free to share-- as long as you're ok with someone else "adopting" some of your ideas! :-)