Sunday, December 23, 2007

Christmas Menus and Traditions

I should have posted this earlier, but like most of you, I have been too busy. I love to hear others traditions. We are just starting to establish some. Early in our marriage we traveled the entire Christmas break. We were in a different home every Christmas, so it was hard to start traditions. After getting Isaac we decided to stay home, but do to a Christmas miscarriage one year, pregnancy bed rest the following year and still having to travel at some point during the break to see grandparents, it has been hard to establish our own traditions. For the past three years we have done a few things that I guess are becoming traditions. On Christmas Eve we go to church and come home to have our big meal. The children then will open one present before going to bed. It has been pajamas(I want nice clean pictures on Christmas morning), but after a year of Isaac crying because he was so excited and then deflated to find pajamas, I have changed that. They always each get a box of new books. We will let them open that so they can read them while they are too excited to go to sleep. On Christmas morning we will open presents one at a time and try to spread it over time. We always read the Christmas passage from Luke and we have a breakfast of breakfast pizza and Cinnamon rolls. For the rest of the day we have left overs from the night before and other favorite heavier snack foods. We will leave the day after Christmas to visit with all of the family and we will be gone a little more than a week. That means on Christmas I will be packing last minute things and getting the house ready for us to leave. That is why we do our main meal on Christmas Eve. It leaves Christmas day for the kids to play with their new things and I do not have to be in the kitchen all day. Bruce is trying to talk my into taking the tree down on Christmas so we do not have to come home to it. I don't know yet.

Our menu this year will be:

Prime Rib Roast
Broccoli Casserole
Green Bean Bundles
Twice Baked Potato Casserole
Rolls
Chocolate Chess Pie

What are your traditions?

2 comments:

Anne said...

Our Christmas Eve tradition is similar to yours. The children open one gift. We do our advent devotion at dinner, and we go to our church's Christmas Eve service. We used to alway have lasagna on Christmas Eve, but now everyone wants me to make lasagna soup, so that's what we'll have.

On Christmas morning we open gifts -- one at a time, and my husband and I cook a big breakfast.

We have our big meal with friends (Jeanne & her family) on Christmas afternoon. My husband is frying a turkey for that, and I'm making a cheesecake.

Merry Christmas, Julie, to you and your family! It's been a blessing to know you through your blog and to meet you in person!

Julie said...

Thanks Anne. It has been a blessing to know you as well. I am looking forward to seeing you and meeting your family in a couple of months.

Merry Christmas!

P.S. The fried turkey reminds me of home. Bruce's family does that every year.