Lincoln Logs, Saying Cheese, & Christmas Traditions

I have a sister who is 11 years older than I am, so my Mom waited for years for a grandchild. For those of you who don't know, Mom passed away 8 years ago. But, every Christmas she would buy some sort of toy for me or Jamie that she wanted to be ultimately passed on to her grandchild that she was waiting for. We have the most beautiful set of Chinese Checkers (wonder if she knew something way back when?), stuffed animals, board games, books, toys, and the L.L. Bean Lincoln Logs you see below. This week, our television died. Great timing, right? Me at home with nothing to do but lay around- and Pop! the tv just died. Lily was very upset, and she doesn't even watch tv that often. Anyway, Jamie used to work at an appliance store, so he made a couple of calls and that afternoon, we had a brand-new, flat screen tv sitting in our den. It is beautiful! But, we have to wait until Wednesday for someone to come and properly place it on the wall on the opposite side of the room. So, our den is a mess. We decided to pull out something new for Lily to play with this evening because Lily loves this new tv. Seriously- LOVES it! She is mesmerized by the picture. So, even though we pulled out the Logs for Lily, Jamie really enjoyed playing with them. Example below: I could just say that Lily is a genius (which she is), but I will be honest with this one.

Lily loved the Logs. She especially liked the way they sounded as she threw them into the silver, tin can! Now, as I was taking pictures of this new toy, I said, " Lily- say cheese!" and I grinned really big at her. I was just joking, by the way. The picture below is what Lily did when I said it-

How precious is that smile!

Jamie and I have been waiting for years to pass on our Christmas traditions to our daughter.

• We will wear matching pajamas every Christmas Eve. This year, we got matching pajamas from Hanna Anderson. (And pictures will be on the blog, too!)
• We will continue our 3 gift tradition since that is how many presents that Jesus was given when he was toddler. It also makes every Christmas very easy to remember. We take pictures with each opened gift.
• On Christmas morning, we have a birthday cake for Jesus. This year, we will be getting a cookie cake from The Cookie Company to take with us on our vacation.
• We also have a time on Christmas morning where we talk about what we can do for Jesus throughout the next year. Those are His presents from us.
• We listen to Christmas music all the way to our destinations and sing together as a family. Lily enjoys this immensely. If only you could hear her sing! It is adorable!
• We always make sure that Jesus is the center of our celebration!
• This year, we did not put up a big Christmas Tree. We just have a small one. But, normally, we put our tree up on Halloween (since we don't celebrate that holiday).

We hope you and your family have a wonderful, blessed Christmas enjoying all of your family traditions!