Christmas Traditions: Kelley

It's time for another Christmas Traditions guest post!  Today is my sweet friend, Kelley, who blogs over at Life Behind The Badge.  Kelley went to high school with Tiff and I.  She is a pretty busy lady  being a wife, mother to 2 precious little boys, nurse, student and photographer on the side.  I'm thankful that she took the time between all of that to tell us about some things her and her family do for Christmas.

Being new to blogging (and I must admit, not very good), I was really honored that Lissa or Mo, as I know her from way back in high school, would ask me to guest post.  I can say welcome to a southern Christmas because as of today I am in my home state of Louisiana.  It's warm, borderline hot and it's perfect.

Thinking back to traditions, I have noticed that just a few things have changed nice my sisters and I have moved out of the house and two of us to different states. Throw in the grandkids and Christmas is different than when I was a kid. =)  So some things have changed, like my location for Christmas or who gets the most presents (not me anymore, sob ;), but the core of what makes it a family Christmas has not, nor do I think it will ever change.  

The first thing you would have to know is that my mom is a Christmas fanatic. She has a few choice things that never seem to make their way back into storage, but the rest she puts up just as soon as she can and leaves up just as long as she can.  I would say my Christmas could not be complete without my mom's decorations.

 

The second thing I love is our shopping game. Each year, the day after Christmas, the family will meet at the mall.  We will draw envelopes with $10 and a name inside.  We then have one hour to shop for your name. We meet back and reveal who we had.  It's so much fun to see what kind of deals we each find and we also compete on who can find the best "free" bag (the gymboree bag is always a cute idea).

 

 

 The third and last thing that is a must and it's actually number one for us is the reading of the Christmas story follow by a birthday cake complete with a candle.  We always want to remember that because of His birthday we can all have a new-birth day in Christ. As kids, ok well even now, my Dad reads the verses and will pause for us to fill in the scripture.  Mom would then get out the cake with Happy Birthday Jesus written on it and we would sing. 

 

 

These are just a few of my favorite traditions and ones that I know we will pass on to our children and I hope they brought some Christmas cheer to you.  

Thanks Ya'll!

Thank you, Kell for taking time and sharing with us!  

I love the shopping game!!

(Side note:  She took all of the pictures last night at her Mom's house.) 

Beautiful!