Traditions...

...are like glue for the family.

Kind of like a child's security blanket, you know? comforting in it's predictability. reassuring that regardless of what else happens, you know it's set in stone.

Knowing this, establishing family traditions is one of The Big Ones as far as "mom goals" go for me.

That said, this year we started another tradition. One that I believe will continue well into the years where they're dating and married.
The Yearly Christmas Dinner

...a time where we dress up to the hilt. decorate the dining room. go all out on the dinner menu. and just focus on enjoying each other.

Being that Raquel was born a week before Christmas and I had sudden-onset of postpartum preeclampsia, the dinner was postponed until the beginning of January. But better late than never, right?

THE MENU

Back in early December, we sat the girls down and took a vote. They were given the opportunity to choose the meal. I have to admit, I was a little worried that our First Annual dinner would be corndogs and jelly beans.

But letting the girls be a big part of the planning process makes the tradition THEIRS. So it felt key to let them choose at they saw fit. Thankfully, corndogs were never mentioned. :)

This year, Charis was the emcee.


Manning the dry-erase board, as she wrote down every one's thoughts on the menu.

Very serious matter... being the ONE In Charge. ;)

Then again, so is coming up with viable menu options...

Selah's deep in thought. :)

We went through the voting by items: Vegetables. Meats. Sides. Desserts.

Listing all their ideas on the board before putting it up to a vote.

I'm pretty sure this little girl, only knowing Food was involved, voted more than once.


I have to admit, the whole Voting Drama part was almost as fun as the dinner itself.


Just hearing their ideas, for one, was so telling. These girls were reallllly putting a lot of thought into it.

And then watching their faces as they saw that THEY were actually getting to determine The Special Dinner was precious.

They loved every minute.

As did Daddy...as he got some cuddle time with SelahBug.


These are the moments that made traditions so special. The slowing down and enjoying each other.


and teaching the kids to enjoy each other as well...


I love how you can literally see their pride in this picture. Knowing that they were in charge. that their ideas and their vote were the determining factors.

Just the memory of their excitement makes me smile.

The Big Day (January 23)



MENU:
Shrimp and Salmon
Salad
Green beans
Sweet potatoes
Corn on the cob
Fruit salad
Ice cream cake and Pumpkin Pie


Selah was all about documenting all the details with her camera.


Raegan, all about helping the big sisters decorate with whatever she could find


The oldest girls were loving being Dolled Up.


And I was loving watching my manly man cook. ;)


Unfortunately, due to a snow storm, we were unable to get all that we needed. And then during Prep Time, due to Jet pulling a back muscle and Raquel refusing to let me put her down, we were forced to improvise on a few items.


But oh well...that's life with kids. Everything felt chaotic in the hours leading up to the Big Dinner. But it was all so worth it, watching the oldest girls work themselves up into a frenzy.

twirling around to show off the poof in their skirts. and the curl in their hair.


Their choice of accessories, tights, and shoes cracked me up.

Selah (5)...

She loves shiny things. And loves to combine different textures, styles, and prints. Budding artist maybe?

Or just a future victim on the show "What not to Wear."

Charis (7)...


She loves looking grown up. high heels, tights, frills...she loves it all. As long as she thinks it makes her appear older... and as close to a "real princess" as possible....she'll wear it with pride.

Raegan (2)...


She hates shoes. usually screaming that they are "too tight", even when we know they're a size too big.

Unfortunately these were the shoes she picked. and refused to take off.

Future tomboy? Or maybe just like her momma...a pushover for sweats and socks as her daily attire?

Alana (16 months)...


loved the decorations. This is her seeing the streamers for the first time after we got her up from her nap.

She never lost her excitement over the decorations...or the food.


Of course, none of the girls did.

They said it was The Best Night EV-ER. :)

Score! I'm positive that this is a tradition worth keeping.


And this party will be one that we'll look back on and smile.

Ornamental Traditions

One Christmas Tradition my family faithfully kept during my growing up years revolved around the Christmas Tree.

Every year, from the time I was an infant, my parents (and my Nana) gave me a tree ornament. So by the time I got married and had a tree of my own, I had a TON of ornaments.

Let's see...Jet and I were 25 years old our first Christmas. So we're talking at least 50 ornaments (since other people in our family caught on to the tradition and started attaching ornaments to the top of the wrapped present)!!

That said, it was a natural progression for Jet and I to follow suit and give our girls ornaments as well.

But I wanted to take it a step further.

Instead of just finding any ol' ornament that we liked, I wanted to get an ornament that represents the year they've had. AND add a hand-written personal letter to go along with it, explaining why she got the ornament that she did.

That way, when they leave home, it's like they'll have their growing up years documented...for all to see on their tree.

The plan is to give the girls their ornaments over our special Christmas Dinner, reading their letters outloud to them, and giving each daughter a moment to stand in the spotlight as we review their year and how amazing they are. ;)

But this year...because our Christmas season was crazy with Raquel's birth...we ended up giving them the ornaments on Christmas Day.

Charis with her Willow Tree ornament...a girl holding a house. This year she has really started to think about her future husband and children and job. and thus, has started to play "house".

If she had free time, it was spent dreaming about her future. :)



This is the year that Selah learned to read...


Here she is holding her Willow Tree ornament of a little girl reading a book. She LOVED knowing that she has an ornament showing that she's started to read. :)


And here's little Raegan-Roo...

hugging her Willow Tree ornament of a dancer sitting on a box.

Though she always been a dancer of sorts, this past year she's really developed it. Becoming more artistic and creative in her movements. She's truly a natural.

The two little ones also received Willow Tree ornaments...of little girls holding different color hearts. I have no pictures because I was far too tired to even try. :)

The Lord totally blessed my desire to save money by providing these ornaments through Craigslist. Brand new ornaments for less than half the price.

Stretching it out.

One thing that we started doing last year (or was it the year before that?) is the "Stretching Out of the Presents".


When I was growing up, I would walk into the family room on Christmas Morning and see, in one glance, all of my gifts in a matter of seconds. My parents didn't wrap them...instead opting to use the "pile" method.

I totally didn't mind. It was fun ...especially if you snuck downstairs in the wee hours of the morning to get a sneak-peak. heh heh

FYI, Mom and Dad: Tommy (my older brother by 5.5 years) was totally the ringleader on this one. I'm innocent...as usual.


But now as the parent, I really wanted to avoid the whole Present Panic where the kids get all of their loot in a matter of minutes. To me, it seems sort of anti-climatic.

So we give each girl a present every hour or so. It allows them to slow down.


Take notice of what someone else has gotten.


And truly enjoy the new gift before moving on to some other present.


This year we did a Princess Theme (as far as gifts go). Because 2009 was the year that the girls started to really play with Barbies, talked obsessively about getting married, pretended to be dancing princesses, and dreamed of Prince Charming.

So we gave them tiaras to go with their new ballerina tutus.




Lani was less than thrilled.


Don't let this picture fool you. It stayed on for a matter of seconds. ;)

I was able to find 7 (totally like new!) Disney Princess Barbies for $10 on Craigslist. YeeHaw!


They were thrilled! and spent HOURS playing with them.


It took all of 2.2 seconds before the barbies were having their hair brushed...

their outfits changed...


and rechanged...
and changed again.
and then (re) accessorized to match the newest outfit. :)

I'd say it was a well-spent $10. :D

This year, I was truly blessed to be able to sell hundreds of dollars worth of stuff on Craigslist. I was able to get rid of excess stuff and use the money to buy Christmas gifts. some of which were actually found on Craigslist!

I love being able to bless my daughters with things they want. and to be able to bless my husband by not spending an excessive amount of money.

Unfortunately the biggest present wasn't able to be built. With the pending labor and unexpected blizzard, our last-minute idea of building a Barbie House Cabinet wasn't able to happen. Yet.

Stay tuned for pictures. Though it probably won't be until Valentines Day, :) being that the girls didn't miss what they didn't know was coming.

And being that we stretched out the gifts to be an all day affair, they felt extremely blessed. As Charis said, "This was the best Christmas Ever!"

Delayed Gratification. Courtesy of Mom and Dad.

After stockings, we tortured the girls by making them practice good hygiene.

They clean up nicely, don't they?

Truth be told, these last couple of weeks of "pretend labor" has exhausted me to the pathetic extent that their hygiene went backburner on the ol' priority list.

Yeah, don't judge me. It's not like I was clean either. *wink* It was a family bonding experience.

Um, like a homeschooling project of sorts. Yeah... that's totally what it was: A "How long can you go without soap before your sweat begins to erode your clothing?" Science Project.

OR "How many days does it take for your stench to naturally repel small animals?" Or people.

*shrug* I'm not picky. I just want conclusive results. ;)

Totally legit science project in my way of thinking. Being the stellar homeschooling mom that I am, I seize every opportunity to prepare my daughters for a stint on Survivor ... life in a jungle ...college excellence.

(Dear God. Do you see how easy it is for me to digress?! It's a wonder I was ever a public speaker. I mean, the fact that intelligent administration trusted me to coherently speak to their students amazes me to no end.)

ANYWAY back to Christmas.

I figured if we didn't get "good" pictures of the girls today, it just wasn't going to happen. I know me well.

Thankfully, they still maintained their joyful attitudes. I mean, here it was 11am and all they had gotten to open were their stockings. (oh, and wash off grime).

And if forced Christmas Morning Baths wasn't bad enough...we then proceeded to further delay the Gift-Carnage by reading the Christmas Story out of Charis's new Bible. (she insisted we use it)

Raegan wanted nothing to do with sitting still. And I wanted nothing to do with pinning a teething toddler down. So we compromised and ignored each other completely. Wisdom or laziness...you decide. But it worked for me. ;)

There were some pictures of Charis and Selah (as they listened to Jet read) where you would have thought they were hearing a dissertation on fungus. Selah was staring off in the distance. Charis, intently picking at her nails.

But I so had to laugh. Our lovely little Christian Family Christmas Bible Reading was going down in flames even before we made it through the "first annual".


Thankfully, they did engage at some point.

Either that or they quickly learned how to fake it. (What can I say? They're prodigies. ...I didn't learn the art of feigning interest until well into high school). *wry grin*

And for the record, here's a picture of me and my still-swollen (postpartum pre-eclampsia) face.


Though honestly, it's NOTHING on what it looked like a couple days prior. That will have to go undocumented. left up to your imagination. and my memory.

(which I'm hoping will dump that bit of data, being that I am obviously lacking in both shortterm and longterm memory bites. as I'm constantly calling Raquel "Alana").

More Christmas to come...