The Family Table with Genevieve

Food, family, and fitness... all with a bit of style.

How We Christmas!!!!

Happy Wednesday friends!!! Today I am linking up with Shay & Erika for How We Wednesday. Some fun topics on "how we do" life... and today's topic is How We Christmas!! Cue twinkle lights and Christmas music.
I am all about traditions. As much as I like to explore new things too, I love doing the same things each year....especially around Christmas. So today I am sharing some of our family Christmas traditions. Not just what we do on Christmas day (we do pretty much the same things every Christmas Day) but the whole month leading up to it!

Our Christmas season kicks off the weekend of Thanksgiving when we put up our tree. 
And every year Paul & I give the kids a new ornament. Something that was special to them that year or that they did. Last year Luke loved reading, so he got a book ornament. Ella discovered Starbucks Frappucinos so she got a little Starbucks cup. 
This year Ella got a violin for all her practice playing for school and Luke got a Boston Red Sox ornament to commemorate our Summer trip to Fenway (and a World Series win!).
I have not shared all my holiday decor yet, but you check out my  holiday home tour  from last year.
Our elf, Percy usually rolls into town somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas....complete with a North Pole Breakfast. This year he arrived on December 1st. 
He always has a blast at our house!
Now this is my most favorite tradition.... our Gingerbread Party. On Sunday Ella and I hosted our 7th Annual Gingerbread Party. You can read all the sweet details in my Gingerbread Post.
Lots of girls and mamas for a fun holiday afternoon.
Every year we pair up with a family in need of some extra holiday cheer. All our gingerbread guests bring gifts to help fill their wish list and then we head off to make the delivery!
We love to do some ice skating around the holidays.
And you can't skate without getting hot cocoa after!
Speaking of hot cocoa, every year we set up our  hot cocoa bar in the kitchen. It's so fun to have when friends come over during the holidays. I shared  some tips on how to set up your own too.
A few years ago our neighbors started caroling. 
It's such a sweet tradition! 

We love taking a ride to see the lights. This is usually an impromptu, random night. We play some Christmas music in the car and head out for a drive.
The past few years we have ended up in Niagara Falls...it's my favorite time to see the Falls. There is something magical about it in Winter. 

The kids love to get in on some cookie baking! They would decorate for hours! And honestly I am not a fan of making cutouts. I LOVE to eat a really good cut-out, but not a fan of making that dough.....not sure why? So I make it easy for myself and buy a roll of Pillsbury sugar cookie dough and let the kids cut out whatever shapes they want and decorate. They are usually the cookies they like to leave for Santa😉
The kids pick out gifts for each other each year and it's one of their favorite things to do!
They each bought gifts on Black Friday and wrapped them that same day. I cannot believe they haven't told each other what they bought! But they absolutely love giving the gifts they bought.  I tell you it is usually their favorite part of Christmas morning.
And of course we always get in a visit to see the man in red!
We always go to Christmas Eve Mass and then have dinner with my parents...either at our house or theirs.
Christmas Day we stay in PJs and play all day!!! 
We break to make freshly squeezed OJ every year....
My parents come over and always give Paul one of his gifts in this Victoria's Secret box.
My mom put one of his gifts in there the first Christmas we were dating.....20 years ago. The look on his face when he opened the wrap and saw the box was priceless! 
She takes the box each year and puts another gift back in it. Seriously, this is Paul with the box on Christmas Day, 1998!!
We make a ham dinner and are usually still in PJs at dinnertime. Ella and I don our matching aprons too.
 
We have had them for a while....
So much Christmas fun leading up to December 25th....
Whew...that was a lot of Christmas on this Wednesday!

If you missed our other How We Wednesday, you can check them out here.
See you tomorrow...there's always room for one more at our family table.
xoxo
Genevieve


2 comments on "How We Christmas!!!!"
  1. Sarita @ it's my girls' worldDecember 12, 2018 at 7:11 AM

    Yay for all this christmas cheer.... off to check the gingerbread party out!!

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  2. Joanne December 12, 2018 at 4:56 PM

    We have so many of the same traditions. We do the ornament thing with our kids too; this year I was completely stumped for a new skill or activity or love to commemorate but I knew I just could not let this tradition slide. We have waaay more ornaments than we know what to do with but I know when they all leave someday and take those ornaments with them they'll have so many wonderful memories decorating their own trees.

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