Things I Hope My Children Remember About Christmastime

Here are some things that I hope my children will remember about Christmastime at our house - some of the tradtions and decorations that are fun to think about long after childhood has evaporated into adulthood.

First: the advent calendar I worked so hard to make about eight or so years ago. My parents had one very similar to this growing up and oh how we all loved it. It was so exciting to see what would come out of the little pocket each day and so fun to see the tree get more and more decorations on it. That meant only one thing: Christmas was getting closer with each decoration! My kids definitely love this advent calendar and EVERYONE wants to be the one to put #24 on the top of the tree.


So thank goodness for this advent calendar Melinda made us a few years ago so at least TWO kids get to have the honor of placing the "treetop" on the tree.

Here's a new addition to our Christmas decorations. Brady has an early-morning seminary teacher with one of these Marching Bands and he always likes to visit her class in December so he can see this decoration out on her mantle. Several months ago he began looking on ebay for one for our home and found a MICKEY's Marching Band! Even better than just a regular old Marching Band because this one matched our Mickey-themed decorations. So, this little baby came to our home in about October and the kids fell in love with it the minute they heard it. The pictures don't do it justice, hopefully the video will give you a taste of how fun it is.

Since we're on the subject of Mickey Mouse, that brings us to the TREE. The Mickey Tree that existed well before thoughts of living in Florida ever entered our head. This tree has been in existence for 17 years in fact, with decorations being added each year. Since we've moved to Florida, it's been lots easier to find decorations. Almost too easy! Here's some cute bulbs we added last year:

Just look at all the Mickey ornaments!

Here's Jordan putting the Mickey tree top on. Don't ask me why I cut the Mickey off...I'm famous for cutting the top of the photo out. I was trying to hurry since Brady looked like he was in pain leaning into the tree with a five-year-old on his shoulders.

And under the tree has to be a Mickey tree skirt. We bought this last year and I just love it. Before that for 16 years we just had the generic red with white fluffy trim tree skirt but this one, this is the finishing touch!

And finally, the Walt Disney World Railroad that circles the tree. We bought this a few years ago (thank goodness for a friend who takes us shopping with her discount!) and our kids SO look forward to getting this out every day-after-Thanksgiving. They could probably skip the tree but NOT the train. The most frequent passengers on the train are Lego people:

Either they're riding train or getting plowed over by the train (see video).

That concludes my lengthy post about what I hope my children remember about Christmastime. Hopefully we'll continue making memories and I'll add to this post year after year (wonder just how long you can make a single post!). Oh, here's one more thing: we're starting a Christmas journal this year - thoughts, things we received, things we gave, traditions, etc. Each of the kids (mom and dad too) will write in it at least once or twice over the holidays, then we'll pack it away with all the Christmas decorations and get it out again next year. Then we can read about all the things we got for Christmas THIS year (that have long since been forgotten by NEXT year), plus read about the joy Christmases past.

Okay, now I'm REALLY done! Goodnight!