Christmas Traditions

Question for my fellow FB moms/families/anyone? What are your Holiday (specifically Christmas but other holiday ideas are appreciated too) traditions? We have several with our extended family and a few with our growing family but would LOVE other ideas! I LOVE LOVE LOVE (did I mention Love) Family Memories and Traditions!

I will list ours for other to get ideas from:
Growing up we always:
We walked from our house to the Christmas parade. Then we would decorate our tree after.
Our parents bought us the same "type" of ornament each year. I got a rocking horse, Tiffany a angel and Cortney got Snowmen.
We went to our Grandmother on Christmas Eve (still do) with my moms extended family.
My mom always fixed fudge and oatmeal drop cookies between the holidays.
Christmas Day we opened gifts at our house. Had ham biscuits for Breakfast. Then had lunch at my Dad's parents and opened gifts there.

So far as a family we:
Go to Matts parents for Thanksgiving. We take Azilee to Chee Haw Park along with Matt's mom to view their Christmas light display and to ride the train. We also (beginning last year) get her picture taken with Santa there (NICEST Santa EVER!)
We attend (and now participate in) the same Christmas parade that I went to growing up. The kids stand in the same place with my parents to get candy while Matt and I help with the parade in different ways.
Afterwards we go met Santa at the fire dept. Then go to my parents to decorate the tree.
Christmas Eve is spent at my Grandmothers and Christmas morning we meet my family at my parents. We open gifts and have ham biscuits at their home for Breakfast. We also open stocking at their house like we did as a kid. And we always open those Last.

Other traditions for us:
We give the kids ornaments each year and its something different that reminds us of something they accomplished or their personality for that year. The first year is always a large glass ball with baby's 1st Christmas written on it.
We decorate our tree the first Saturday of December (would love to do it the Sunday after Thanksgiving but its took late when we get home :/
We give the kids a new set pf PJs on Christmas Eve to wear for Christmas.
We drive around a few nights and look at the Christmas lights and drink Hot Cocoa. Watch Christmas movies & listen to Christmas music starting on the way to GA :) (Matt will never get used to that one)

This year we are starting the Elf on the Shelf "book" without the book. We are going to bake a cake for Jesus. Read the Christmas story before bed on Christmas Eve. Last year I baked goodies for Matt to take to one of the fire dept meetings during December and I plan on doing that again. I have more but cant remember this at this time of night :)

Im trying to find more that will incorporate Jesus and the birth story. Also things that included the kids being hands on more.

Our K4 curriculum

These are some of our basic books that we are using for our PreK curriculum this year. We started out using the lesson plans from Heart of Dakota Little Hands to Heaven but have since decided to follow our own schedule. We do a lot of loose unit studies, read numerous books a week and take "field trips" whenever possible.
We are also supplementing Math, Science and Social Studies activities from several PreK workbooks that we bought. Social Studies & Science are also talked about a lot during our weekly units.


My Bible Coloring Book: A Fun Way for Kids to Color Through the Bible

My Mother in Law gave Azilee this book around Christmas of last year but
she was not very interested in coloring at the time. I am so thankful that I kept
it back because it goes along with lots of the lessons that we are reading and
it is helping her to tie lessons together with a hands on Art experience.


My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts






 
   The Singing Bible (Focus on the Family)
4 CDs. The songs go along with the lessons in our HOD Little Hands to Heaven.





The Reading Lesson: Teach Your Child to Read in 20 Easy Lessons

Unit Study: Zoo (Field Trip!)

Elephants (Animals in Danger)
Lions Up Close (Zoom in on Animals!)
Gorillas (Animals in Danger)

One of our favorite books.
We will be doing a unit based on this book.

Watching Turtle with 

Lemur

 

 

Snapshot with the Giraffe

Comparing hands

 

 

Such a wonderful Playground. This pic shows 1/2

 

She was so exhausted and upset when we had to leave the playground

We ended the wonderful day with a trip to Pizza Inn.
I used the slices to discuss factions with Princess. 

Pinspired: Cloth Wipes

Since we Cloth Diaper I have been considering the switch to cloth baby wipes. I would Love to try out Thirsties Fab wipes because I have heard great reviews on those but want to make sure I will stick to cloth before purchasing more cloth related stuff. So I decided to sew up a few wipes myself out of some fleece that i had left over from another project. I purchased a small section of terry cloth for around 2.00 and sewed up several a few weeks ago. So far I am using them for Pee but not #2. I also have one that came unsewn after the first wash that I am using to remove my makeup. It is working great to remove the makeup around my eyes without being too rough. I do plan on making a few eye makeup remover pads from some leftover Minky i have.

The Subfertile Frugalista: October Pinterest Challenge Link-Up!

Fall in the Carolina's

My inlaws and several of their friends came up to visit us from South GA. They went on a tour of the parkway with me. And by tour with me i mean that I acted like the annoying tour guide giving them tidbits of information some interesting and some useless. :) We all had a wonderful time. We were piled up in a minivan (minus Matt, Ezra and my father in law) and headed out to sightsee the leaves on the parkway. It was a wonderful day.

A man going down Sliding Glass Falls on October 17th 2011

Add caption

Looking Glass Falls

Off of Hwy 215 

*i tried some new editing things on these pictures to brighten some colors. love the way they turned out

The Subfertile Frugalista: October Pinterest Challenge Link-Up!