our family traditions

We grew up with lots of traditions, just as any other family! In my family, we counted down Christmas Eve just as excitedly as Christmas Day... the Eve was filled with all sorts of tasks and fun projects. You see, my mom was able to trick us into cleaning the house the day before Christmas in the name of Santa! Then we would run all around town, dumpster diving for our Christmas boxes. Mom would help us pick out the right size because she somehow knew what dimensions were needed for each child's needs... :)

Here we have Will demonstrating how it's done. Then you place unwrapped gifts in your personally wrapped and decorated box, thereby keeping the floors somewhat clear of clutter and everyone's stuff to themselves. I quickly became the boring one and would wrap my box in a single sheet of paper whereas my brothers would piece theirs together, being the creative geniuses they are (there's Kory in the background). Then we would use the leftover flaps from our box to create nametags to mark our territory, decking them out similarly to our gift-containers.

The rest of our traditions heavily revolve around food (Italian Sausages and homemade raviolis), movies and other "normal" family activities fit for the season: temple lights, scripture reading, The Night Before Christmas reading (thanks Hallmark!), to list a few. We would also set out our pajamas before dinner only to have the elves replace them with special ones. Then we'd open one present from our siblings and then have a slumber-party.

Brad remembers his Christmas' with lots of family and friends. There's a Summers Christmas Party every year (huge get-together) and they'd always have the neighbors over the night before to share in food (Taco Soup) and nativity skitting (not a word, I know- just made it up 'cause it seemed appropriate). And the Summers family shared the Borgia's traditions of new pajamas, Christmas readings and siblings-sleeping-fests!

As we both grow older, and grow closer together as our own little family, I think some memories grow dim to make room for our own traditions. We've tried meshing a few of them together and creating some of our own. And to tell you the truth, that's the best part!