Everyone who celebrates the Holidays have traditions and sometimes those traditions change.

One of our traditions is to open our gifts on Christmas morning and that tradition will continue this year.  However, now that we are living in our new home, we decided to incorporate a new tradition.  The idea behind it was to better limit the number of gifts and the amount of money spent.  So this year each of us will be getting something to sleep in, something to wear, something to play with, something to read, something entertaining and something fun with the family.

I realize that for some people, this seems like an extreme amount of gifts, but hubby and I have had the tendency to go buy willy nilly and lose track of how many gifts have been purchased and the amount of money spent.  It’s not been uncommon at all for our kids to receive double this amount of gifts and that is totally not necessary.

Another thing I started this year was having the girls go thru their belongings to get rid of things that are broken and to donate other things they no longer play with.  In the past, I’ve taken on this project by myself, but this year I wanted their involvement as I think it’s important for them to willingly decide what they would like to give away.  In addition to two garbage bags full of stuff, we have a box full of toys that we will be donating to our foster care agency.  I LOVE it!!  It makes me happy.  It brightens my day.  It causes the girls and I to break out in spontaneous dancing in the kitchen.  There is absolutely nothing I don’t like about Christmas music (other than a handful of songs I’m not fond of).

This is one of my favorites.  It makes me smile, sing along and move.

What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?