More Christmas Traditions...

Here is a rather simple Christmas tradition that we do, but one of my favorites! Every year we send picture Christmas cards and a Christmas letter to all our friends and family. James and I have lots of fun trying to write our letter together. This is something we have done since our first year of marriage, and I am so glad. It is so fun to be able to go back and read the letters that we have sent in the years past, they just make the memories come flooding back.

A couple of years ago we changed the approach we took in composing our letter, and now we have a little "blurb" from each member of our family about the highlights of our year. In the past it has been fun to try to write the boys "blurb" from their perspective... hopefully this year they will really be able to give us some good input! We have not written our letter yet this year, but it will be done soon hopefully.

And I just love going to the mailbox in December! It is so fun when those Christmas cards start filling up your mailbox! My favorite cards are the ones with pictures or the ones with a personal note or letter letting you know a tiny bit of what is happening in their lives.

Have you ever wondered what to do with all of those cute and adorable picture cards you get every year? Well, last year a scrapbooking friend gave me a wonderful idea that I just had to implement. We saved all of the cards with pictures and put them into a scrapbook. Now this was done very simply, much more simply than I do my normal scrapbooks. Since the cards are so nicely decorated you do not need to add lots more stuff to the pages.

We keep this scrapbook on our table in the den and use it during devotions. I have the boys look through the pictures and pick one person to pray for that day. It has been a great way to teach them about the privilege of praying for others, and I just love hearing their sweet and precious prayers (they often pray for their friends to obey and not get any spankings, to not say potty words, typically what they are having a hard time with that day). Now, they do not always pick a person to pray for, often they will pray for the pets included in the pictures, but that is fine with me, they are learning to pray.

And I think it will also be neat to look back over these through the years to see how families change and grow.


So, do any of you have any simple yet meaningful traditions that you do each year? I would love for you to share them!