Christmas Traditions

Every year on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when others are fighting crowds for huge "savings," we begin our Christmas tradition. Preparations actually begin a couple days earlier. I usually take a day or two off before Thanksgiving and all the outside lights up. On Friday we wake up and get ready to head to the Elgin CHRISTmas Tree Farm. We always enjoy going there and checking out the animals, hay maze, the shops and the hot chocolate. We cut down our Christmas tree and on the way home we stop at Southside Market for some great Elgin BBQ. Then we come and decorate the tree and inside the house. While we decorate, we have our first taste of eggnog for the season and watch Ice Age, followed by Dr.Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and Horton Hears a Who.

We were on pace to continue our tradition this year, but the Monday before Thanksgiving, around 2AM, Holly started having real contractions that were consistent and not far apart. About 6 hours later, Isaac was born. We were fortunate the docs agreed to let Holly come home a day early, and after her c-section, she and Isaac were home on Wednesday afternoon.


So, the lights were not put up before Thanksgiving and there was no Christmas tree hunting or BBQ on Black Friday. A week later, however, my bro-in-law Mike came over and helped me get on the roof to get our outside lights up. On Friday, Holly was feeling good and we were able to continue the tradition only a week late. The temperature was like 180°, or 80°, so we skipped on the hot chocolate. We did have a fun time on the farm though, everyone loved the BBQ, and we got all our decorations up! We are ready to celebrate Jesus' birthday for the next month!

The pics you see Holly and I in front of the tree, they are probably not centered or focused...that's cause I had Jeremy take the pic for us.

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