Family Traditions

I can't believe how quickly I started thinking about how I would raise my kids with my boyfriend after finding out about our little one. It's CRAZY!! Suddenly I'm like, "I definitely have to do this." Or "We sure won't be doing this."

And now with Christmas right around the corner, I really find myself thinking it. Here are just a few things I hope to carry on with our little one. Of course, I don't know all of his family traditions, so some of these will be changed, but-for now-these are the ones coming to mind.

1. Christmas presents. Growing up, we had two ways of opening presents before my parents split. The first was--We got to open one gift Christmas Eve and everything else on Christmas Day. When I was a little older (maybe 7-ish), my parents switched it up. We opened all the family gifts on Christmas Eve and Santa's gifts on Christmas Day. I don't know which way is "better" but I know which one I liked more!! LOL I loved getting an entire night to enjoy all of the gifts my family gave me. I loved opening a gift from my Grammy and playing with it for a few minutes while my sisters opened their gifts, then getting to the next one. It felt like the family gifts didn't get as lost on Christmas Day because of Santa's gifts. This will probably be harder with all the Christmas functions we will have to go to (we're both from divorced families; his all live close by and mine are spread pretty far out); but hopefully we'll get to do something like this.
2. Christmas Movies. My dad always loved Christmas movies. A Christmas Story was quoted frequently in our house throughout the year. BUT! We never watched Christmas movies unless it was Christmas time. The day after Thanksgiving (or sometimes really late on Thanksgiving night) was when we could start in with Frosty and Rudolph and Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story and all the other classics. I loved waiting all year to watch those movies.
3. Dinner at the table. Growing up, we always ate dinner at the table together. The only "exception nights" were the nights we had ball games. Right now it doesn't feel necessary because it's just me and him at the house and we can sit together on the couch, watch TV, relax. That's a lot of fun for now, but when our baby gets older, I can't wait to sit at the table and hear about the things they got into that day. There's just something about a kitchen table. It's kind of like Frosty's hat! lol
4. Bedtime stories/reading. I remember being 5 years old and my parents were reading me a bedtime story and I thought it was the best. Then my dad said, "I think she should start doing this on her own." So I read Hop On Pop. Of course, my dad thought I had just memorized it, so he made me read another Dr. Seuss book. And I did. That's when my parents learned I could read. I also remember going to my Grammy's during the summer and checking out tons of books from the library. Every year for my birthday and Christmas I would get a Caldecott Award Winning book with a little note from her written on the cover. And every year for Easter she would read us The Velveteen Rabbit. Books were huge in my family growing up. I can't wait to pass that on too.
5. "Making memories"/"Date Days." These were the days where my mom would take us out (individually or all together) and we would go do fun stuff. Sometimes date day was lunch out and a movie (hey...we were kids. Can't do a late dinner! lol). Sometimes it was driving an hour to Nashville just to see the sights. Sometimes the days were planned out and sometimes they fell together. But they were some pretty awesome days. So awesome, that we still try to do them now as grown ups. 
6. "Educational Summers." Yes, growing up, the second that summer bell for school rang, my mom would hand us a math book, a list of science projects, and a "topic" for the summer. All summer long, we would learn about things, read lots of books, play math games, etc. And growing up we hated it! We always used to make fun of my mom for it. Especially when we found out other kids from school were going to places like Disney World and they didn't have to read every sign! lol But now I have some really fun memories from those summers. We had the "NASA summer" right as the movie Apollo 13 came out; there was the "summer of Lincoln" where we went to every birthplace replica of Abe's in the tri-state area; etc. Now, as dorky as it sounds, I can't wait to do something similar with my kids. BUT!! I also want to take them to places like Disney World where they can run around and just be wild! So this is a split: I want a week where we learn all kinds of things, and a week of just fun. Close together, so Disney is like a reward for their hard work.

These are just a few I could think of. Yes I know most are holiday related, but hey... It's Christmas time!! Like I said, I don't know all of my boyfriend's family's traditions yet, so these can't stay exactly like this. But it'll be fun to see how we mesh them.