I love the holidays – Christmas in particular. I’ll admit, I’m not big on going to church or anything as I’m not particularly religious, but I am a fan of Christmas carols. I’ll sing them in the car or sometimes in the house. And I love spending time with my family. And my friends. I love making and giving gifts. I even like baking cookies.
Tim Minchin sums up my feelings well in this song…
Some of my favorite traditions (in no particular order) are:
1.) Visiting my fam – especially my extended family with all my cousins and aunts and uncles. If we’re all there, it’s about 70 people under one roof. Of course, that was at last count – several babies have been born since then. It’s loud and hilarious and chaotic and I love it. I usually need a nap afterward, though. 🙂 We usually do four holiday gatherings, plus getting together with friends and the writers group. It’s…busy.
2.) Baking cookies. Every year, my sister and mom come over and we bake cookies with the kids while watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Die Hard. Those are our holiday baking movies.
3.) Making gifts. It’s usually knitting, sewing, pottery or cross stitch. I freaking love making things for people. 🙂
4.) A relatively new tradition is the creep my kid out with Weeping Angel tradition. A couple years ago I made Killian a weeping angel and wrapped it up and gave it to him as a “big deal” present. Last year, I made another one, and we decorated the tree like always – with the star. Then Corwin and I replaced the star a few days later with the Weeping Angel tree topper I’d made in secret and scared Killian again. Not sure what I’m gonna do this year…
5.) Cats in the trees. It’s not Christmas without Willow and Morrighan climbing the tree. 
6.) Putting up the tree and other decorations. These are some of my favorites.
This Christmas castle is the last thing my Grandma made me before she died, and it’s beyond special to me.
These are the stockings I’ve cross stitched for our family and they get hung in the archway between the living room and the dining room. Each one is different. I started making the stockings because when we got married, my husband told me he’d never had a stocking as a kid. So I fixed that, and it grew from there. His was the first one I made. My skills have evolved some since then. 🙂
So that’s about it for favorite traditions. What are some of yours? Click the names below to find out the other bloggers favorites!
OMG!! I love the stockings! We do them too, but they are not amazing and fab like your hand-made ones. And I think if I had that many people under one roof I’d need a big old nap afterwards too. 🙂
Thanks! 🙂
I’m just glad all those people aren’t under *my* roof! 😀
I made stockings too! Yes, the one time I sewed something 🙂 I love your new tradition—weeping angels and cats in the tree. Nicely done.
My Thanksgiving holiday is the big family one for us. Christmas is more of a subdued holiday. Just us Louisiana families, which consists of my immediate family and my mom’s sister’s family. Last 6 years or so we’ve added my dad’s sister since she’s now a Louisiana girl 😀 So 10 of us.
I too love making gifts. I don’t do it often as I am not as talented nor motivated as you. I have grand ideas it’s the follow through that I lack hehe
I cannot wait to hear how you get Killian with the angel this year. 🙂
Stockings are my favorite. Santa always forgot the stockings in our house. Mom has confessed that Santa admitted to her he always was going to then would forget to bring things to fit in there. I understand but I still love the stockings. 🙂