Traditions

I grew up in house where we had traditions for almost all holidays and I loved it.  Today as I was taking down my Christmas decorations I was thinking about traditions and how fun and important I think they are.  Each year we buy our kids a new ornament, so when they are grown up and move away they will have a few to start on there own tree.  This year I didn't help at all, Easton and Gretchen picked without any input from me. Here are this years ornaments.

 Kinslee's

 Gretchen's( I think it is totally cool)

 Easton's

 Another tradition we started 3 years ago was Elf on the shelf.  Our elf is named Chester.  My kids love looking for Chester every morning.   I love the magic and excitement for kids at Christmas time.

This is our manger for baby Jesus.  It starts out without any hay.  We read a story called the last straw and then every time we do something nice for someone else in our family we get to put a piece of hay in.  Easton really enjoyed this one this year.