Monday, December 21, 2009

Holiday Traditions

I am #2 out of five children in my family and we are spread out on both coasts of the country-- California, Oregon, two in New York and yours truly in the Lone Star State (that's Texas for those that haven't seen the commercials).


Throw in marriage, children, pregnancy, in-law's, jobs, distance, money and time (or lack thereof) into the mix and you find that family gatherings where we are ALL together become more difficult with each passing year.

So we have learned to take turns!

This year, my sisters and brother (and their families) are sharing Christmas together, while Thanksgiving was spent with our in-law's. Next year we will all get together for Thanksgiving and spend Christmas with our in-law's.

It has been an easy way to guarantee at least one full family reunion a year. :)

This year we'll be minus one sister and her familia. But she's got a good excuse.




We think Lulu will make her appearance before 2009 is over. Maybe we should take bets on when her birthdate will be? If I win, I think baby's name should be Lucy Marsha. I know it doesn't flow at all, but that's not important right?

The Hodges family Christmas traditions are a simple mix of both old and new. Pizza and presents on Christmas Eve (so no one has to cook). Christmas Day has stockings filled with goodies, a traditional turkey dinner, and a birthday cake for Jesus.

There is Santa on Christmas morning for the ones that choose to do the whole ho-ho-ho thing. Personally, we don't with our kids and have taught them to not ruin it for their cousins. Kinda makes me nervous though! I think I need to remind them again (pretty much every single day) to not blow Santa's cover. Yikes.




What does Christmas look like at your house? Any tips on fusing traditions from different families together?


The theme of this week's challenge at I Heart Faces is Holiday Traditions. Pop on over to I Heart Faces to join in the fun or to read and see other people's entries!



8 comments:

Gracie Parker said...

Ha! I just posted mine a few minutes ago! Great minds think alike. Loved seeing yours.

Y'all are the cutest family ever! And I see your child's silly face up there - I love it.

rural momma said...

Christmas in our house is probably the most laid back of all the holidays. We go to an early dinner on Christmas Eve at my sister in laws and then we attend church service. Once we are home, we open one gift each and then we watch a Christmas movie. I'm thinking this year we should watch It's A Wonderful Life, because the kids have never seen it.

Christmas morning we get up and eat a hearty breakfast and then once our bellies are full we open presents. Yes I am an evil mother...muwahahahah (evil laugh). Throughout the day we watch movies, play games, eat, and just hang around. :o)

Christine said...

Thanks for reminding your boys not to ruin Santa. I'm sure it won't be long before my smart 5 year old figures it out. Knowing him, I'm sure he'll ruin it for Emily before she figures it out for herself. Oh well. Thanks also for summing up our Christmas traditions. Jason's family does pizza on Christmas Eve too but they wait till Christmas morning to open gifts. I like how we do it though so we have a designated evening for presents and then we can dedicate Christmas for the real reason for the season. :) Love you! Can't wait to see you the day after tomorrow. :)

Bunch of Barrons said...

Such sweet photos! :) Our family is large, too...so it's hard for everyone to get together. But it's so much fun when we do! :)

Unknown said...

I love a Birthday cake for Jesus. I think that is a very sweet tradition! I hope your sister has a relatively easy birth! God bless her! Merry Christmas to you and your family : )

Anonymous said...

Our traditions include A Candle Light service at our church on Christmas Eve, followed by new pajamas and 1 present. Christmas morning is filled with a huge breakfast/brunch. I love it!
We don't do Santa either, but have many family member's who do. We usually just keep our mouths shut. :)

A very, very blessed Christmas to you and your family Marsha!

Deedee said...

We also do the every other Christmas with my parents as there are five of us kids and we are actually spread onto to continents! LOL! We go home every other Christmas and as my brothers each got married, they were instructed that they had to get onto the same rotation as us since we did it first. :op

We open one present on Christmas eve which is a pair of brand new pj's to wear to bed - this way everyone looks nice in the Christmas morning photos while opening pressies! :o)

We do stockings before breakfast, than have something special for beaky and then we read the entire Christmas story around the tree and have a family worship time before opening pressies.

We have a later meal and this year it is a Goose. Yummy! In England the Queen makes a live Christmas speech at 3pm every year - sort of a national tradition.

We also do the birthday cake for Jesus. Though this year I think it is going to be a Birthday cupcake tree for Him - LOL!

I didn't realise that some of your siblings lived in NY!!! We are going to have to work things out so you can visit them sometime while we are in the states. My brother lives in north Jersey and works in NYC so we can stay with him and maybe we can finally meet up!!!!! Whoo Hoo!!! Since the chances of us making it to Texas seem to be getting smaller by the day.

Becca~CapturingSimpleJoys said...

Be sure and let us know when your sister delivers, today is my sisters 35th birthday:)
This year my Mom and Step-Dad Neil are coming to our house. A first for us-to have family here- and we're all excited. I'm NOT excited about driving to the airport this afternoon in the snow. Ugh.