Traditions

Today, we continued a little tradition that we started last year and it seems to be something that everyone enjoys and we will continue as long as the kids are willing. We start out at the toy store where the children are to pick a Toys for Tots gift. We lecture and remind about the joys of giving and thinking outside of themselves at Christmas. They actually enjoy this part, but it is a bit difficult to then drop the gifts into a big cardboard box unwrapped and gone forever. After that we went to the mall to visit Santa. We were first in line and actually got to walk with Santa down to his big chair to sit on his lap.(This was a great Kodak moment for me) Claire would only get close to him if he wasn't paying attention to her, but this was more than I expected. The kids were able to then pick another gift at the Build-A-Bear store for an upcoming birthday party with the $5 off coupon that Santa gave us. (Yeah, budget mom!) We rode the Carousel and went out to lunch and we were all wiped out by the time we got home, (The late night surprise birthday party last night in Lansing that Kevin and I went to didn't help) so we all took naps while the snow piled up outside. The other fabulous tradition that we celebrated this week was truffle day. This is year number 5 and we made about 50 dozen truffles. Our flavors were mint, raspberry, coconut, butterscotch, hazelnut, and regular chocolate. The picture is of some of the great friends who attend every year after rolling some very messy truffles. YUM. I also included a picture of Haylee at her school holiday music concert. It was beautiful as always and Haylee did a wonderful job. Have a nice week celebrating your traditions.