Christmas Traditions

We have a few family traditions that we look forward to every year. One is going to Macy's and mailing our letters to Santa. Another is picking out our stocking ornaments. Every year we buy a new ornament for our tree. We started doing it a few years ago because if I picked out all the ornaments we would have a tree full of red balls and clay Santas.

Ashlyn, in true princess fashion, picked an Ariel the Little Mermaid snow glob ornament for her stocking.

Big surprise that I picked another clay Santa for my stocking ornament.

Last year Mike's cousin bought him this LT ornament. So he was very happy to use it this year on his stocking.

We wanted to get a dog or puppy ornament for Ariel's stocking but the two stores we went to didn't have any. Of course now I see them everywhere. So the kids settled with a reindeer to decorate her stocking.

Braden has quite the nutcracker collection going. We already have a couple ornaments on the tree and he has his nutcrackers in his room year around. This years nutcracker is covered with glitter. It looks pretty at night when the Christmas lights shine on it.

Another Christmas tradition for us is gingerbread ornaments. They are super easy to make. The dough is made of applesauce, ground cinnamon, and a tiny touch of good ole' fashion white glue. Super simple and the kids love lOVE LOVE making it. I pour all the stuff in the ziplock bag and let them mush it around until a ball of yummy smelling dough forms.