Our Christmas begins the day after Thanksgiving when we get our tree. The girls get to decorate the tree first with their own box of ornaments... ones given to them and ones we buy of their choosing each year. The angel that tops our tree is from my childhood.
Out comes our set of Christmas plates, replacing our everyday plates.
We celebrate the advent by reading each night. This year we're using, A Family Advent, by Thomas Nelson. We also add to our nativity scene wall hanging that has 25 pockets for each part of the picture.
There is the church pageant that the girls participate in. Alyssa will be a lamb again this year, Hannah an angel. We are hoping that Hannah participates... last year she opted out and sat in the audience.
Christmas Eve we will see the lights and have peppermint ice cream (an Idaho family tradition).
Christmas Day is spent with the Jaffe family most years. Before opening presents, we always sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus (also an Idaho family tradition).
Christmas Day also begins the Twelve Days of Christmas. We read the Zonderkids, The 12 Days of Christmas, and the last day, January 6th, we have a Three Kings dinner. This year we have an ornament set for the Twelve Days of Christmas that we will hang on the tree each day.
Along the way we play Christmas music, sing carols, make crafts, bake cookies to give to our neighbors, fill Operation Christmas Child boxes, drink lots of hot chocolate and holiday flavored tea, go to the Nutcracker and also added to our holiday traditions, First Presbyterian Church of Monrovia's concert of Handel's Messiah.
Our sweet little angel and darling little lamb helped to tell the story of the birth of Jesus this night. Even though it rained hard all day and little noses were sniffling, our girls did a wonderful performance. We are especially glad that Hannah decided to participate because she truly had fun. 
Every year is deliver cookies to our neighbors. It's our way of spreading a little holiday cheer. It's fun to see the recipient's faces beam as they are handed their cookies. People are generally surprised by such a gesture. The girls love to package and hand out the cookies. And going to my annual cookie exchange allows me to hand out a variety of treats.
Our Christmas begins the day after Thanksgiving when we get our tree. The girls get to decorate the tree first with their own box of ornaments... ones given to them and ones we buy of their choosing each year. The angel that tops our tree is from my childhood.
We have been keeping connected with the classmates from Hannah's last class from preschool. Josiah's mom, Cindy, half jokingly says that she hoping her sons marries one of the girls. It is a wonderful group of families where the kids and parents get along so well... this fellowship is blessed. 
