Our Christmas Favorites - for the record

Christmas Books

 have always played a big role in our holiday traditions.  In the first few years of our marriage I started collecting a new Christmas book every year and some years I couldn't help but buy more than one.  We display some of our favorite books under our Christmas tree every year and now we have an "overflow" area in two baskets next to the tree.

Everyone has their favorite books:  

Joseph - Auntie Claus (all three in the series)

Aubrey - The Three Trees

Bailey -The Christmas Orange
Me -It's so hard to choose, but a few of my favorites are The Three Trees, Auntie Claus, How Santa Got His Job, and Mary, Did You Know

Dan - The Christmas Train

Christmas 1996 - I was pregnant with Bailey and confined to bedrest. Brandon (age 4) and I read a lot of stories that year.

Christmas book reading in 2000 - Brandon age 8, Bailey age 3, Aubrey 9 months

Music 
is a big deal in the Porter household, and this tradition is definitely influenced by Dan. Our awesome music collection is loaded on the computer. The kids are experts at making playlists for every occasion. Bailey takes Christmas music very seriously and has rules for when we can start (and stop) listening to the tunes. She has sifted through almost 1,000 Christmas songs we own and has created a perfect playlist for our Christmas holiday.  Once again, it's hard to choose a favorite, but we tried:
Me - O Holy Night and The Christmas Song (Nat King Cole version)
Aubrey - When Christmas Comes to Town (from the Polar Express)
Bailey- any Christmas song sung by Michael Buble
Dan - Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time; Still, Still, Still
Joseph - Santa Claus is Coming to Town (Justin Bieber version) and Believe (Josh Groban)

Bailey's itunes playlist of 213 favorite Christmas songs

Christmas Movies 
are the best! We watch a long list of movies every Christmas season. Our faves:
          Aubrey, Joseph, and Bailey all like "The Year Without a Santa Claus."
Me - "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Year Without a Santa Claus."  "Frosty the Snowman" also.
 Dan: "A Christmas Carol" all versions
      

                                            
                                            Decorations 

have been simplified over the years, but there are still some must-dos.  A few of our favorites: 

Me - my nativity collection from around the world and the advent calendar my sister Kara made us for a gift years ago. (She gives such thoughtful gifts.)

Aubrey - the Christmas tree

Joseph -  the Christmas tree

Bailey - colored (definitely not colored) Christmas lights 

Dan- colored (definitely not white) Christmas lights

(This is why we bought an artificial tree this year which can switch between white and colored lights. Now there is truly peace in the family)

Traditions

Bailey - decorating the house and setting up the nativities

 Aubrey and Joseph - Christmas Eve sleepover in the bonus room with all the kids, watching Christmas movies until we fall asleep.  

Christmas Eve sleepover 2010- the last time we had Brandon home with us for Christmas Eve!

Tiffany: making Christmas cookies with the kids. I think I like this even more than they do because it reminds me of being a kid and trying to pile as much as frosting and sprinkles as possible onto my cookies.  I also like pulling out all the tree ornaments and remembering the significance of each one. And I love our Christmas Eve nativity play.

Christmas cookie making 2001 with the Ellefsens.  (Awesome bow, Bailey!) Brandon 9, Bailey 4, Aubrey 1

2008 - Joseph (aka Spidey) 3 years old decorating Christmas cookies

Christmas cookie making 2009 - Brandon 16, Bailey 11, Aubrey 9, Joseph (not pictured) 4

Christmas Cookies 2013

How did these kids get so old?

Joseph's maniacal face as he adds as much frosting as possible.  He takes after me . . .

Other random favorites:

Christmas Cards We look forward to them all year (especially Bailey and me) and we tape them all over our cupboards so we can read them again and again. This year we were very sad and felt friendless when few cards came until the third week of December.  Then the flood of cards started, so we feel better.

Pjs all day and Cafe Rio for Christmas Eve Dinner - our homemade version of Cafe Rio is not as good as the real thing, but will do in a pinch. Then we eat leftovers all day on Christmas, along with plenty of chocolate. And we never change out of our pjs on Christmas day.  I guess the year pictured below (2009) we had ham instead of Cafe Rio, but we were definitely in our pjs for Christmas dinner.

Neighbor Gifts Giving and receiving. We really like having an assortment of treats on the counter at all times the last few weeks of December. I mean, what is there not to love about that?

this is what we handed out this year

 

Watching the kids perform in Christmas concerts and plays - I really love this. I get choked up every year when the audience is invited to sing along for the closing song at the VSAA Christmas concert.  I don't have a picture of that event, but I do have a photo of Aubrey's Acapella group performing at Barnes & Noble. Aubrey sang a beautiful duet.

 
Joseph was in the choir for the ward Christmas party.

 And Bailey performed in the play that night. Ask her how much she enjoyed that . .

Wearing comfy pjs to elementary school - who knew that pjs and a robe would be acceptable attire for school (and that they would coordinate so well with the Converse shoes)?  Joseph's entire school had pj day  today. I wish that pjs were appropriate attire for the errands I need to run!

Helping out in the elementary school classroom at Christmastime - The enthusiasm of the kids is infectious.

Dec 2013 - helping Joseph and his classmates make yummy gingerbread houses.

We love Christmas - everything about it!