december traditions

One of my favorite things throughout the year (and in December, especially) are our family traditions.  We have some that we've done as far back as I can remember and some that are newly started.  A new one that I hope we'll get to continue was going to Red Robin for a free dinner for those with a Christmas-y name-- worked great for "Chris" Kringle and St "Nick"!!  We always get the kids matching Christmas jammies and this year we got an additional pair for just the girls.  We also always have a "Home Alone" marathon (just the first two!) and have pizza and ice cream sundaes!

This year we took the kids to the Singing Christmas Tree for Kids.  They loved it and have already asked to go back again next year! 

We had front row seats and the kids all thought it was pretty cool to be able to see the orchestra.

After the show we walked around Uptown Charlotte for a bit before having dinner at Vida.

Every year we walk around Uptown Charlotte to see the Christmas lights and all of the decorations.

One of the kids' favorite traditions is our annual "Elf" dinner: On the longest night of the year we eat dinner by candlelight and have pancakes, bacon (or bacon pancakes like this year) and noodles with syrup, sprinkles, and whipped cream and then watch "Elf".  Christopher bought Ellie a Christmas Snoopy with his own money and was so excited about it!  I love how much he loves her!

Another favorite tradition in our house is our annual "Santa Clause" marathon- we watch all three "Santa Clause" movies and go to dinner at Denny's in Christmas jammies.  Even Ellie gave it a thumbs up!

The weekend before (or if we're super busy, a couple days before) Christmas we always make Christmas cookies.  This year we made snickerdoodles, peanut butter blossoms, chocolate peppermint, and sugar cookies.

The big kids (and Jacob) had fun decorating cookies while we watched "Jingle All the Way" and EVERYONE enjoyed eating the cookies!