Lights and gingerbread houses.....

I love Christmas! It has to be the best holiday of the year. I love looking at the lights. I love the music/sounds all around the mall. People mingling and enjoying themselves. I love the atmosphere of this holiday season. There is something about it i just can't explain.
I love that we get to be with our families and share traditions. What's not to love about that right?

When we were living in Idaho - back when we were kids. Every year for Christmas dad would take us girls and head out to find us a real Christmas tree. Mom worked two jobs so she wasn't able to go.
Every year we get a real Christmas tree. I really don't know why but it seems that was the tradition in our house back then.
When we get home with our tree dad would go about making a stand for the tree. He would nail it to the tree so the tree will stand and we'd decorate it.
Dad wasn't around much....or should i say he wasn't much of the kind of dad that would spend time with us. He was more of the provider type and not the 'there' daddy type..
So this was always a welcome treat for us.
That's about the only time we actually do spend time with dad: Christmas tree shopping!
We didn't mind at the time. We knew our parents were busy parents. Working a lot to provide for us girls.

We didn't have much presents around the tree because we couldn't afford much but we were still happy just to get something.
A barbie from the dollar store, socks, underwear.....etc.....
It was just awesome to unwrap those presents. And back then, let me tell you! I was as excited as a kid in a candy store to get a barbie from the dollar store! Seriously.....i thought i had won the lottery.

The kids made gingerbread houses a few days ago!  I am trying to get this to be one of our tradition. So far so good....

And now i feel like my kids are having it so much easier than we did. They are some lucky kids. So i hope this holiday season and for many more holiday seasons to come.....They will remember how it is to be grateful and remember that there are some out there who aren't as fortunate as they are and that they will appreciate all that they have.
I also want them to always remember that it isn't what you get, it's what you give. And never expect anything in return.
I hope to start many traditions with my own little family. So far we are doing good. :)

We will be adding one more to our family soon. This Christmas we are enjoying the time for the 4 of us....
We are going to celebrate having another year with us each other.
We celebrate having another year of health...
We celebrate another year of love and laughter. ...
We celebrate another year of friendships - old and new..
We celebrate being a family....

We celebrate being able to provide for each other....
We celebrate life!

This time around next year, we'll have another reason to celebrate! It'll be our baby's first Christmas! We just can not wait.