Thursday, December 8, 2011

Making New Christmas Traditions {Try New Adventures Thursday!}

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As a young family, this time of year is always a blast for us. We are creating and experimenting with our own family holiday traditions.

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1st things 1st: The weekend after Thanksgiving we set up our tree and decorate the house for the season. This involves eggnog, Christmas music, and the yearly question of "does-this-string-of-lights-still-work." Our apartment is tiny, so our decorating space is limited. But that's ok...it helps keep things simple.

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That Yankee Candle is the best smelling thing ever...
This year, instead hanging all of our "special" ornaments (still a small collection) on our tiny 1 1/2 foot tree, we hung Christmas garland and lights and added our ornaments to that. We were pleased with the result. :)

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The ornament we made for Squishy last year, hung on our garland. :)
Which brings me to our next tradition: Making ornaments together as a family! We make them to give as gifts and we also make one for us as a family and one for Squish. This year we're going to give salt dough ornaments a whirl.

Our toddler is old enough to start being involved...and so this year we started a sugar-cookie-making tradition. He was fascinated. I love the joy little ones have at being involved in something with you.

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P.S. I just bought parchment paper for maybe the 1st time, and it makes me feel like a real baker for some reason. Not sure how I get these things in my head...

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Chubby hands are one of life's delights. :)

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Our finished product. I used Our Best Bites' sugar cookie recipe, and it is the bomb!

A few other traditions we enjoy: 
  • Baking Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Coffee Cake for the neighbors (we started this last year!)
  • Putting together a box for Operation Christmas Child. I look forward to when our kids are old enough to be a part of the shopping process for this!
  • New tradition this year: Making a gingerbread house. If, that is, we can pull it off without structural issues. :)
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It is so sweet to make family memories together. What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?

P.S. Perhaps the pictures look idyllic, but let me just tell you, my kitchen was probably overflowing with dishes when half of these were taken. No, when 90% of these shots were taken! Just so you know. Can't have fun without mess...:D
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Link up your recent adventures below! Just link up your specific blog post (no links to homepages, please!) link back to Alicia's Homemaking, and visit and comment on a few other participant's posts. :)






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9 comments:

  1. Royal icing + graham crackers make the best houses because they are actually EDIBLE..unlike some of the other houses recipes. We also used to make a paper chain with 30 links, and each day we got closer to Christmas, the wee one got to take a link off...it's kinda hard for them to conceptualize how far away "30 days" (etc.) is. Everything looks lovely! --debbie5

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  2. Fun traditions, Alicia! One of our favorite traditions is acting out the Christmas story. When they were littler, we let the kids play with an inexpensive Nativity set.

    I'm also looking forward to enjoying some of my mom's fruitcake when we visit my parents after Christmas. =)

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  3. Thanks once again for your photo challenge. I always enjoy it.
    I’ve included your site on a page I’ve put together devoted to hops, challenges, and memes for every day of the week! The link to that page is under my header. http://acts17verse28.blogspot.com/

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  4. Awww...I love every single photo and tradition! We've tried to keep it simple. It's just less stressful and makes it easier to focus on what the season is really about.

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  5. Love this so much! The pictures of him using the cookie cutter is great. I can't wait to start traditions with my family. :-)

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  6. Sweet traditions--sweet pictures--sweet family. Take a look at daughter #1's new art project. It's fun to follow your blog and hers and see the blogs that you both follow. Merry Christmas!
    http://paint-me-a-picture.blogspot.com/

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  7. So much fun! It is fun as they get a little bit older too and understand more and get more into it!

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  8. Beautiful pictures Alicia. Grand dad would like to compliment the model. He is precious!!

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  9. Hahaha, I was only thinking the other day that I felt like a real baker because I used lots of parchment paper! (very behind on blog reading...!!)

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