Holiday Traditions

What are some of your families favorite holiday traditions?  Do you enjoy going to the mall to visit Santa?  Lighting the menorah together as a family?  Going to see a movie on Christmas day?  I have compiled some of my readers favorite traditions to share with you!  Here are a few of my favorite traditions...

Everett with Santa

• You may have read in my Currently post on Wednesday that one of my favorite Christmas traditions is listening to the Mickey Mouse Twelve Days of Christmas CD and hanging the ornaments on the tree!
• Our annual gingerbread house building contest is always a fun activity for everyone in my family.  We split up into teams and have a set time limit on how long we can build and how much can be made in advance.  Tyler and I's gingerbread creation is going to win this year... I can feel it! 
• My favorite tradition that we had when we were younger was going to my grandmother and poppa's house on Christmas eve and waiting for Santa to come and bring us presents.  Santa would hand deliver presents to my brother, sister, I before he set out on his trip around the world.  

• Diana from Elements of DM says...

• "On Christmas eve we have this huge party at my parents house with at least 25 people, and there is food, drinks, music, and at midnight a prayer hugs and kisses for the Lord has been born.  Even as small children it was exciting because it was the one day a year we were allowed to stay up all night! The next morning once we're all up we'd watch Christmas Vacation, you know the one with Chevy Chase! Presents have never been a huge deal but we'd open those as well eventually!"

Chaunie's daughter Mya, and her gingerbread house

• Chaunie from Tiny Blue Lines says...

• "My favorite is making the graham cracker "gingerbread" houses with my kids. I glue crackers together with cream cheese frosting and decorate it with candy! Always fun, plus I get to eat them."

• Kelli from To Teach What is Good says...

• "One tradition that we have always done since I was a kid and my husband and daughter and I do now is Christmas Eve gifts. We always open one gift on Christmas Eve and we always know what it's going to be. It's Christmas Pajamas! Every year we pick out which pajamas we'd like and then I buy them and wrap them up for everyone. So far, we've never done matching Pajamas, but now as my daughter is getting older, I'm really leaning towards matching family PJs!"

• Jessica A. from Come What May says...

• "Peruvian tradition: dinner really late at night (like 10), then you stay up until 12 midnight to drink hot chocolate and "paneton" (like fruit cake but 100x better). Then we open presents. So most of the celebrating is done the 24th at night."

Jackie's son Kasen making Christmas cookies

• Raeann (yes, that's my mom) says... 

• "Christmas breakfast, going to the plays, time with family."

• Jackie says...

• "We always open one gift Christmas Eve and we get a new ornament every year too!  Kasen will pick his own when he is old enough so I picked his first two." 

• Starr Nicole  says...

• "We have two traditions in our family.. The first is every year the family sits down and makes an ornament to put on the tree. Then our second tradition it to wear Christmas pjs and watch Christmas movies for 25 days of Christmas and whatever we watch we make a food to go with it.. Examples: for The Grinch Who Stole Christmas we drank Grinch floats and ate Grinch popcorn, for Elf we drank hot cocoa and ate maple cookies, for Frosty the Snowman we drank snow shakes and ate frosty bits... Super fun and yummy snacks."

• Jessica V. says...

• "We do the one gift Christmas Eve night too. We also make Santa special cookies just for him with his name on them and leave egg nog instead of milk. Then Christmas morning we always have orange cinnamon rolls for breakfast."

• Amie from Casa Campbell says...

• "I always make cupcakes.  After all, it is a birthday party!"

Teresa's beautiful Christmas Tree

• Teresa (my mother in law) says... 

• "When Tyler and Jordan were little, we would dress in our pajama's on Christmas Eve and ride around and look at Christmas lights. Now WE (whoever is home-not visiting other family members), go to the movies Christmas night."

• Sarah says...

• "We have two traditions. All gifts from family are opened on Christmas Eve (Santa only on Christmas morning -- and he gets things for grownups too). On Christmas day, after the gifts, we go see a movie and then go eat Chinese food (a Jewish tradition, but we started following it about 10 years ago even though we aren't Jewish. Then again, we aren't Christian either and we celebrate Christmas, so...)"

• Brittany C. says...

• "We make our own stockings on Christmas Eve. The kids love that. We also read the Cajun Night Before Christmas."

• Laurie says...

• "Here's a few from my childhood and some from Nickand I as a couple: leave cookies & eggnog for Santa & carrots for the reindeer, open gifts in stockings before parents wake up but nothing that's under the tree til everyone is awake, visit national tree the night of Christmas eve, if we go out whether to eat, get gas, last minute store run or movies etc we always buy something for whoever helps us (i.e. gift card for cashier, big tip for waiter/waitress, candy from snack bar) that goes for any major holiday. "

• Brittany P. says...

• "As a child, my mother would give us Christmas pjs and one ornament on Christmas Eve. And right before we would go to bed we would read the story of the candy cane. This is definitely one tradition I do with Jackson. Since Josh and I have been together (dating, engaged and married), we have gone to see the national Christmas tree. We actually got engaged during one of our visits. We now do that with Jack every year."

• Judy (my wonderful aunt) says...

• "We read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas eve and drink Christmas milk (egg nog). Christmas morning after the presents are opened we have a special breakfast of little smokies, cheese fondue, homemade breads (banana,zucchini, pumpkin, etc), mixed fruit, and grapple juice (1/2 grape, 1/2 apple)."

• Jeanette (another of my wonderful aunts) says... 

• "When Keith and Bruce were small we used to fill their stocking and put it on their bed after they were sleeping. They knew they could look and play with the things in their stocking whenever they woke up but had to wait for Pete and I before they could go to the tree and see what Santa brought. One of our other traditions was to have a Whitman's Sampler under the tree which we opened as we were unwrapping gifts--chocolates before breakfast!! We still have a Whitman's Sampler every year."

• Lisa (you might remember her from this post) says...

• "My favorite is the breakfast my dad makes every year- cinnamon rolls and orange rolls, the kind from the pop open can:) Every year as long as I remember- My parents now sleep over my house every Christmas eve because I don't want to wake up Christmas morning without them." 

• Asher (Lisa's 10 year old son) says...

• "Presents, watching charlie brown's Christmas, putting up the pickle ornament, and being with my family and Christmas eve PJs."

• Bonnie (my cool grandma) says...

Kelli's son Jackson by the Christmas Tree

• "It makes me happy to see all of my Son's wives continuing with the holiday brunch I started with my family many years ago. It is so wonderful to see them add their own ideas and treats to the menu."

• Kelli says...

• "We bake goodies on Christmas eve and open a gift and watch Polar Express. I told JR that I wanna start making Christmas tree shaped pancakes in the morning."

• Janice (another one of my wonderful aunts) says... 

• "I make chocolate chip waffles Christmas morning. Yum. They used to be in the shape of Mickey mouse. I wonder what happened to that? Also, one gift Christmas eve. We get a new ornament every year.  Everywhere we visit that is new, we look for ornaments and find them even in May and June.  San Francisco, Hawaii, Portland, Toronto, Vegas Baby... and so on... even every year we visit mom at the beach."

I hope that you have enjoyed reading about everyone's holiday traditions, maybe it will inspire you to start a few more of your own! 

Currently: 12/19/12

Reading: I am currently reading A Heart Like His by Beth Moore.  This book is all about King David and his love for God.  This is the first Beth Moore book that I have read and I am really enjoying it so far.  

Photo found here

"A Heart Like His looks at the bond of mutual love and admiration between a man who was not unlike any of us and the one true God who is all good and all powerful. Beth Moore walks us through an exploration of David's incredible life, drawing spiritual insights from a man who boldly fulfilled his divine destiny not merely by what he did, but who he loved and served. Bringing lessons from David's life to bear on your own, this picture of a man who loved and followed God will help you to serve with a heart focused on Him no matter the circumstance."

Praying About: After the Newtown, Connecticut tragedy I have really been thinking about the future of our family and the way that we will continue to grow.  It is so sad and disappointing to me that we live in a world that is full of so much hatred and vile and I can't imagine bringing more children into this world.  I know that sounds sad and depressing and  I am SO so thankful for Everett and baby "Flubber" that is on the way but I do not want to purposefully bring another child into this world after baby Flubber is born.   Tyler and I do plan on bringing more children into our family through foster care and adoption.  There are SO many kids that are already in this world who don't have the love and support that they deserve and we are really hoping that we can help to bring some love and kindness into the world. 

Looking Forward To:  Meeting baby Flubber! I can't believe that I am already 18 weeks into this pregnancy!  This is really, seriously going by so fast and I feel like I have so much "work" to do before s/he makes his/her appearance!  I have been working with the Thompson Tot's kiddos lately with using our manners, not climbing on the furniture, listening, etc in order to have them more prepared when the baby comes.  I want to work with Everett a little more on using our "inside voice" and gentle hands.  

I can't wait to hold this baby and get to know him/her.  I know that Everett is going to be a great big brother and I am quite excited to see their bond grow.  For more baby updates, click here! 

Listening To: The Twelve Days of Christmas CD by Mickey Mouse and friends! Sorry for the crappy quality picture, apparently it is an almost non-existent CD these days.  I guess CD's are on the way out!  One of my favorite Christmas traditions is listening to this CD and hanging the ornaments on the tree!  For more fun traditions come back on Friday and check out my post! 

Photo found here

Planning On:  So in order to reach a goal you have to set a goal, right? So here it is, I am planning on breaking my soda addiction on January 1st!  I did this last year and I actually kept it up for a few months! I have been consuming soda on an almost daily basis due to the headaches that I have been having but I am ready to give them up because I know they are terrible for you!  So I am going to indulge these next few weeks and then I'm kicking my soda habit to the curb! Hold me to it guys! 

Anticipating: Getting to celebrate Christmas with my sweet baby Everett.  We are spending Christmas Eve with Tyler's dad, step-mom, and their families; Christmas morning and dinner will be spent with my family; and the day after Christmas we will be spending with Tyler's mom, step-dad, and their family.  It is fun being a mom during Christmas because everyone tells you what they got for your kid!  I know that Everett is going to be beyond excited when he sees his family and his presents.  We want Christmas to be more about giving then getting but since he is so little we haven't quite figured out how to get that message across. Thoughts anyone?

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For more Currently posts, click here!  Thanks again to Danielle for the original inspiration for these posts!

Thompson Number Two: Week 18

Weight gained to date: As of last Wednesday I was back down to my starting weight.  

Estimated size of baby: Sweet Potato (5.5 inches long, 5 ounces)

Foods I am craving: I am eating EVERYTHING! 

How I am feeling: Feeling good this week.  I am happy that the "zombie virus" has not made any more appearances at our house and I am hoping it stays that way! 

Notes: I felt the baby move/kick for the first time this past week! I totally forgot how cool and weird it is to feel that feeling.  I am sure once the baby really starts kicking there will be times I wish s/he would stop, but for now I am enjoying it! 

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To see more baby updates click here! 

Week Eight- Week Nine- Week Eleven- Week Twelve- 

Week Thirteen- Week Fourteen- Week Fifteen- Week Sixteen- Week Seventeen

Around the Nest: Christmas Time at the Thompson's House

Welcome to our Christmas wonderland here at Casa de Thompson!  To be honest, it has been "Christmas" over here since the day after Thanksgiving.  I couldn't wait to get the decorations out and get our house and us in the holiday mood! So here is a little preview of what our house is looking like these days! 

And the stockings were hung by the chimney wood stove with care...

The Santa in the lower right hand section is Tyler's from when he was a kid! 

Even the cut out got a little holiday sprucing! 

This is a hard area to photograph because of all the natural light- it is right when you walk in the front door. 

Bernard, the elf guards our front table! 

Naked tree!

All dolled up! 

So there you have it! Come back this week and read about a few of my favorite Christmas traditions! Do you have any favorite traditions? I would love to share some here on the blog! 

Pinterest Recipe... Caprese Dip Fail!

While perusing around Pinterest the other day I saw (what I thought was) the coolest idea for a caprese dip.  Basically, you take all the ingredients for caprese salad, chop them up, put them in an oven safe dish, and heat them in the oven until the cheese melts. Sounds easy and delish right?

So here is what the concoction looked liked prior to putting it in the oven... I was really excited about this! I put it in a 350 degree oven and checked on it and stirred it every five to seven minutes.  The one thing that I was really surprised about was all of the extra liquid that appeared as it was cooking.  I had to drain it two or more times as the liquid wouldn't stir in. Weird. 

Here's what it looked like after it was all melted and combined.  Now this wouldn't be a complete fail if you were able to consume all of the dip in about two minutes.. otherwise it gets HARD.  Like, I could have sliced it and put it on the bread slices. Grrrr so frustrating.  It still tasted delicious however I really was hoping for that nice ooey gooey dip that I was promised! :)  

I have been brainstorming about this and I think that the only way to keep that consistency would be to keep it continually heated, maybe in a crock pot or on the stove top on low- then you run into the possibility of the cheese burning.  Have any of you tried this? 

Thompson Number Two: Week 17

Weight gained to date: 1 lb.  My doctor said that I could gain 1lb per week from here out! I am hoping that I don't gain that much, but we will see! 

Estimated size of baby: Turnip (5 inches long, 5 ounces)

Foods I am craving: I keep going back and forth from craving sweets to craving salty food! I am pretty much open to everything, well except for the things that I don't like! :) 

Foods I am staying away from:  Still able to eat everything!  

How I am feeling: Sheesh! Well I apparently caught the "zombie virus" from someone (I wish I knew who) and was up throwing up all Monday night and most of Tuesday! I made a visit to Patient First and got two bags of fluid as a precaution because I did not want to visit the land of dehydration again!  Luckily, it only lasted 24 hours.. unluckily I have passed it on to NINE different people!  I am happy to report that the Thompson's are all back to normal as well as are all the kiddos over here at Thompson's Tots! 

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To see more baby updates click here! 

Week Eight- Week Nine- Week Eleven- Week Twelve- 

Week Thirteen- Week Fourteen- Week Fifteen- Week Sixteen

A Mothers Love

The love that I have for Everett is so big, so great, and so vast that I literally can not explain it.  I love him more than I have ever loved anyone or anything.  I love him so much it hurts sometimes!  It is amazing to me to know that is how my mother loves me and until I was blessed with my own child, I would never have known that in a million years.  I would never have been able to guess just how much a mothers love could be or how deep it could be.   This love continues to grow and will continue to get stronger as we get older. It will help us through his childhood, his teen years, and his adulthood.  I know times will be hard and I know that there will be times where I think "are you really doing that/saying that/acting this way?" but we will make it through. To me, Everett is perfect in every way.  He can do no wrong, and when he does something "bad" or "wrong" I love him through it because he is mine and the love I have for him is able to overlook any negative. 

So where am I going with all of this? Well, today I went to a women's Christmas brunch at my church and had a fabulous time. All of the tables looked lovely, the food was delicious, the fellowship was great, and the message was fantastic.  Susan Wanderer, our minister to children spoke and delivered a message about Mary's surrender to God's plan for her.  She spoke about how Elizabeth comforted her and urged her to believe in God's plan for her.  While Susan was speaking about Mary she was talking about how great God's love was for her and how much He believed in her that He would chose her to carry and birth the Messiah. When Susan said that, my first thought was to Everett. God loves me so much that He chose me to be Everett's mom and to take it one step further, God loves me the way MORE than I could ever love Everett. He loves me more than I can even fathom.  Wow. That is amazing.  Thank you Susan for helping to remind me of this, it is such a blessing to have a Heavenly Father who loves me for me! 

Nifty Thrifty Friday: Salt Dough Santa Ornaments

Nifty Thrifty Friday features items that I have either found a thrift stores or items I already owned and have given new life or upcycled.  These items may be as small as a shoe box or as large as a sofa! I hope you will join me on some of my thrifting adventures!
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While this isn't a thrifting adventure, it is something that you can make with items that you most likely already have in your home.  Last year my friend Gina and I made salt dough ornaments of our kiddos hand prints and we wanted to continue the tradition again this year.  Tiphany and Micah came over too and we got to work on this years ornaments. I was excited to compare E's hand print this year to his last year! 

Here's what you'll need: 

• 2 cups of all purpose bleached flour
• 1 cup of salt
• 3/4 cups of water  

Here's what you'll do: 

• Mix all the ingredients together and knead it until it's a nice play dough consistency.  
• Use cookie cutters to make whatever shape ornaments you want. (I used a straw to poke a hole in the top so that I could tie string through it.)  
• Update: My friend Jess pointed out that I didn't tell you how I made E's hand prints! Duh! Okay, so I rolled out the dough and put it on E's highchair and then held his hand and gently pushed down each finger.  I saved his thumb for last because he likes to dig into the dough with it! After I got his hand print I took the tray and cut out around each little hand print.  
• Set your oven at 200 degrees and start baking.  I checked them about every 30 minutes or so, and it probably ended up taking 2+ hours until they were fully hardened.
• Once they have "baked" let them cool and then you can decorate them however you like!

Now to the fun part.. decorating!  Last year we cut circles out around the hand prints but this year I wanted to mix it up a bit.  I saw this idea on pinterest and knew that's what I was going to do this year!  So here's some step by step pictures of how to paint your own Santa hand! 

Here's what you'll do: 

• Gather up your paint.  I painted probably 8 hand prints and and this was actually too much paint.  Also, I didn't have a peach colored paint so I made due with what I had. 

• First, you are going to paint your Santa's face.  

• Next, add his beard, poof of the hat, and border.  You don't have to paint the white as the border- personal preference. 

• Now add your red paint for your Santa's hat. Make sure to outline the little poof at the end! 

• Finally, add some eyes and a nose! 

So that's how I did it! I am pretty impressed with them! :)  What crafts are you up to this holiday season?

Thompson Number Two: Week 16

Weight gained to date: I am back at my starting weight, so technically I haven't gained anything over that... yet.  

Estimated size of baby: Avocado (4- 5 inches long, 3 to 5 ounces)

Foods I am craving: I have been pretty much eating everything but the past few days I have been craving Wawa hoagies! 

Foods I am staying away from:  Nothing really this week. 

How I am feeling:  Now that I am safely in the second trimester, my doctor gave me a prescription for some headache medicine.  I  have only taken it one time so far however it seemed to provide a little bit of relief, not completely gone but better than nothing. 

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To see more baby updates click here! 

Week Eight- Week Nine- Week Eleven- Week Twelve- 

Week Thirteen- Week Fourteen- Week Fifteen

Month of Thanks: Week Four

Thursday, November 22: I am thankful for my mother in law Teresa and her husband Tony.  Teresa is one of my closest friends and Tyler likes to joke that she likes me more than she likes him!  I am really thankful that I have a great relationship with them, especially because I know many people struggle with getting along with their in-laws.  Everett loves them and especially loves with PawPaw plays the guitar! 

Friday, November 23:  Today I am thankful for my father in law Mark and his wife Sara. I am so thankful that we live so close to them and that they are able to be a part of Everett's life.  I love being able to hang out with Mark and Sara and that Tyler is able to be close with his dad. 

Saturday, November 24: I am thankful for all of the things in life that have lead me to where I am now.  Looking back it's hard to not think about the things that I would have done differently but I know that if things didn't line up the way they did I wouldn't be where I am now. 

Sunday, November 25: Today I am thankful for my church family and all of the wonderful people who work so hard all week long to prepare for the services.  Tyler and I are so blessed to be part of a church that truly cares about its members and the community that it serves. 

Monday, November 26: I am thankful to be able to stay home with my baby big boy.  I am grateful for the families that trust me to watch their children and allow me to be able to do what I love.  The kiddos are so great and I truly enjoy being able to see them learn and grow every day. 

Tuesday, November 27: Today I was reminded at 4am when my husband's alarm went off that I am so blessed to have him.  He wakes up and goes to work every day in order to provide the bulk of our income for our family.  He is really great at what he does and I am so thankful for his dedication. 

Wednesday, November 28: I am thankful today for all of the possibilities in life that are still to come.  I had a wonderful lunch meeting today with two very lovely ladies from church who are really inspiring.  It helped me to see that it is time to get out of my comfort zone/hiding place and start taking on more responsibilities. 

Thursday, November 29:  Today I am thankful for Everett's inquisitive nature. He is so interested in everything and he is constantly learning and figuring out how everything works.  I love watching him as he plays and seeing how his little brain is working.

Friday, November 30:  While trying on maternity clothes today, I was reminded of how blessed I am to be pregnant.  Not only are we welcoming a new baby into our family but we are giving Everett a sibling! I am so excited for this new adventure.