{New} Christmas Traditions

This year I was struggling with Christmas time since my grandmother, who made Christmas for our family, passed away Christmas day last year. Then the very wise {and great advice giver} Valerie commented to say that she and Andrew were making their own traditions this year. And I realized what better way to honor my grandmother and enjoy Christmas then to start traditions of our own.

First, I'll look back on a few of my grandmother's traditions:
1) The Christmas tree was always bare until when we went to bed on Christmas Eve and when we woke up the next morning "Santa" had decorated the tree.
2) I spent every Christmas Eve of my life {until last year} at my grandmother's house. We'd arrive Christmas Eve Evening and wake up every Christmas in West Virginia at her house.

3) My grandmother bought presents for everyone. And I mean everyone. She had nine kids and countless grandkids, great-grandchilden, etc. Then add in boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, etc. I cannot count how many people she bought gifts for every year. She bought all through the year, so even last year we still had gifts from grandma!
4) My grandmother, born on Christmas, opened her birthday gifts on Christmas Eve and her Christmas Presents on Christmas! We all gathered around her chair to watch & had birthday cake on Christmas Eve.
5) My grandmother watched every person open their gifts and loved the smiles on our faces as we did.

Thanks to my grandmother for giving me 22 years of amazing Christmas traditions.

This year, Andy and I have started some of our own traditions:
1) Christmas tree farm hunt with the "fur-kids" for the perfect Christmas tree. We have to have a real tree! I've never had a fake tree. And with our open ceilings it HAS to be big.
2) A New Ornament Every Year: Starting this year we are purchasing an ornament each year that represents something from our year together. This year we chose a key, that represents our new home we purchased. The perfect new home for the newlyweds! We are going to write down the ornament and the meaning and save it {I'm thinking index card and box} so we will have a record of it for years to come. {I'm also thinking no glass ornaments for this, too easy to break!}.
3) Christmas Lights Extravaganza. The nice thing about Andy working some nights in Staunton is he scoped out some great places to show me Christmas lights. So we decided that starting with this year, every year we will get in the car and just drive around looking at lights. Add some Christmas music and hot chocolate and we're good to go! We had so much fun showing each other the ones we liked and spotting the tacky ones, that we've already done it a couple times this year!
4) Sugar Cookies & Decorating. This is something Andy, Angela & Cathy did every year, and we've decided to do it now. Cathy gave me the recipe for her sugar cookies and icing. Although this year we cheated and used the store mix, we did make the icing. We had a blast -- even though my cookies look like a little kid decorated them! Next year I am determined to make the batter from scratch and make enough to share...

We also hope to get a chance to make gingerbread houses with the kids this year too. Andy & I will be splitting our time between our mom's houses this Christmas, as we wanted to be together instead of splitting up for the day. We were very lucky that Andy gets this Christmas off {may not be so lucky in the future}.

I'm excited for the new traditions... what are your Christmas traditions?

Our "Non-Traditional" Icing Colors

Taking a Break from Icing Cookies

Finished Product 1

Finished Product 2

And some Holiday Decorations...