Some of My Top Holiday Traditions

I have to be honest, this years holiday season hasn’t felt very holiday like. Between shut downs, curfews, and being the only house on my street to put up Christmas lights, the holiday joy just seems to be lackluster. Luckily for my house, my son has maintained his level of joy and excitement. While we didn’t do pictures with Santa this year, we did do some other holiday activities that I would love to share with you all.

Purchasing our first home was an amazing accomplishment we made this year. To bring the joy of the holidays into our home, not only did we put up lights outside, but we also decorated on the inside. Me and the kids had a fun time decorating the Christmas tree, hanging the stockings, and setting out dancing Santa and his sleigh on the fireplace. Each night, Jayden could not wait to plug in the beautiful lights.

Every year on our oceanfront, the city puts together this montage of festive Christmas lights. Cars line up down the beach strip for miles to drive on the boardwalk and witness the beautiful lights. This was a plus this year since there were not many houses who put up and holiday decorations. We were able to take the kids and one of their cousins to see the lights. Our car was filled with “oohs”, “ahhh”, and “mommy look” for the entire car ride and the kids really enjoyed themselves.

My sister loves to bake and she came up with the cute idea to bake homemade sugar cookies with the kids so they could decorate them after. Together as a family, my sister, brother, brother’s girlfriend, myself, my two kids, and their dad decorated our own individual sugar cookies. We had a blast laughing at how some of the cookies came out and everyone’s artistic abilities lol. My son had made and decorated a Gingerbread house at school the day before so he was super excited to play in more icing.

Each year my mother buys everyone matching pajamas and we take holiday pictures. This has been her holiday tradition for years, even before I had children. This year was special, because we added my brothers girlfriend into our family photos as well as a welcome into the family. My mother is very big on maintaining traditions and this is one you will never see her break. Both my brother and myself both work on Christmas Eve and Christmas, so we celebrated our family Christmas one week early. We all changed into our matching onesie pajamas, opened gifts, took pictures, and found surprises in our stockings.

Despite everything going on in the world, we were still able to find a small bit of joy in this holiday season. My kids were able to enjoy some fun holiday activities and they received everything they wrote on their list for Santa. A wise person once told me that life is what you make it and the holiday season is no different.

XoXo

Gabby R.❤️