Christmas Traditions

I thought I would start off this month by sharing our Christmas Traditions. I'm thinking if I actually document them I will never hear my kids say, "we didn't have any traditions growing up". We'll see if it works.
1.I'll start with probably everyone's favorite that we have adopted from my family and that's Christmas Tacos. My parents started this tradition when I was pretty young, maybe 7 or 8. Instead of the usual traditional Christmas meal similar to Thanksgiving they decided to have tacos and not just any tacos but special tacos with marinated, steak, chicken, shrimp, and all the fixings you can imagine. We looked forward to this almost as much as presents and so we have decided to carry it on with our own family. It's definetly a highlight of the day and to add to the deliciousness the next tradition is Raspberry Glace' Pie. I'm not sure when my mom first made this and it became a tradition for our family but we have also adopted the "secret" recipe pie as a Christmas tradition. This has become a treat for extended family as well and we all look forward to it since I only make it on Christmas. I'd give you all the recipe but its a "secret" :)!
2.Another tradition in our home is the 3 gifts that we give the children on Christmas. I read a story (I believe it was in the Friend magaizine) a few years ago about a family where the parents decided to give the children only 3 gifts that year representing the 3 gifts that the wise men brought to Jesus. I loved this idea for many reasons so we have adopted it. We give them each 3 gifts, something they want, somethign they need, and something that they can learn from. This seems like such a natural approach to gifts since we give gifts at Christmas to symbolize the gifts from the wise men anyway. I like that this limits the amount of gifts that is expected. The kids know they will get 3 and thats it. This is also helpful to Scott and I as we look for and plan gifts to give them. We know that we are limited to three and we try to make those 3 very meaningful. We also are not so quickly caught up in the spoiling factor. This tradition has been a blessing for our family. It makes our Christmas gift giving much more meaningful and the kids are so excited to see what their 3 gifts will be. They look forward to trying to guess what they are (we write clues on the outside of the wrapping paper)and have never complained about getting only 3. I'm so glad we started this while they were still young.
3.Going to the Live Nativity at Tuacahn is another favorite. we try to go the family night before Christmas. I'm always so impressed by the live nativity and it always helps me to feel the Spirit and remember the true meaning of Christmas. I'm so thankful we get to have something so special right here where we live. The kids are excited to see Santa at the same time.
4. Christmas Eve gifts are always the same but are highly anticipated. Opening new pajamas and an ornanment on Christmas Eve is done with the same enthusiam as the presents on Christmas Day. The kids wonder what ornament they will get and try to guess but are rarely right. We try to get them one that relates to something they did or like that year. We aren't always able to find just the right one but do our best. We will definetly need to invest in a bigger tree soon as wee are quickly running out of room for all the ornaments.

Each year we do some different things but so far these few are yearly traditions for our family. I'm sure we will be adding to it as mom gets all those weird ideas the rest of the family are always thrilled about:)!