Traditions

I grew up on a farm surrounded by trees and every year we went out into the pasture as a family (and by that I mean mom, dad, kids, horses, cats and dog...the animals just followed us, they were, after all, part of the family) and picked our Christmas tree. The tree then sat in our tub to thaw and was decorated on Christmas Eve. I remember us putting those construction paper garlands on our tree. We also had an inflatable Santa that Mom always put up just under the tree that always fell over. We put our stockings, which were Dad's wool socks on the end of our bed and were sent to bed. I don't know about my brother but I am pretty sure it was the same for him, my sister and I would lay in bed wide awake with anticipation about what was going to be in our sock bound and determined we were going to stay awake so we could look as soon as Mom and Dad placed them back on our beds full. I don't think that ever happened.

I remember, as a little girl, being excited about Santa and what cookies he would choose to eat off the plate we left for him (I don't celebrate Santa Claus now but it is still a fond memory I have). It was hard not to believe as a child because we had a strange occurance at our house every year. Every Christmas morning we had to have breakfast, do chores and go get Grandma and Grandpa from up the hill before we could open our presents and every year when we went to the barn there were strange tracks on the barn roof that weren't there (or that noticable) when we went to bed. We were told it was reindeer tracks, hard to argue that.

The tree was down on New Years Day and that is still a tradition we have here but I am trying to find some traditions I can do with my kids...that do not involve Santa. We have certain foods that we eat every Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, we watch the Touched By an Angel Christmas Epidsode with Randy Travis in it every year but I would really like some other traditions. Anybody have any ideas for me...?