Growing up my house did not have a lot of Christmas traditions. We always celebrated and my mom made sure Christmas was always good for my brother and I, but we did not have those things that we knew were gonna happen every year because its Christmas. For this reason I wanted my kids to have something that when they grow up they can say "these things always happened at Christmas". Moving to Serbia has made us adjust our tradition and try some different things. We brought four traditions with us from the states: New dough ornaments every year, Lake Pointe Church Christmas eve service, IHOP after the service and opening one present on Christmas Eve (always new Christmas PJ's but my kids have not figured this out) Moving to Serbia, has made us adjust those traditions. There is no IHOP and LPC is a long commute, but we have adjusted. Jen makes pancakes and breakfast for dinner (we call it SIHOP - Stevens International House of Pancakes), we watch the service streaming live on the TV, and we have PJ's shipped around thanksgiving.
 |
| New PJ's |
 |
| Singing with Danny at LPC |
 |
| Miki couldn't last through the whole service. |
Along with these traditions we added something new this year- it's not a tradition yet but we hope it becomes one. This was the first Christmas we had colleauges in town so we wanted to do something together. We decided to have a name draw Christmas eve then all go shop for our person at the fleamarket. The amount was small but the choices numerous at the fleamarket. There was quite a debate over fun gifts or practical gifts, guess which side I cam down on!
 |
| Team Belgrade Ready to Shop |
 |
| Randi sporting her amazing apron given to her by her oldest |
 |
| Missmatched socks for amy |
 |
| Kyle and Trey with very practical gifts |
 |
| Jen got socks, of course |
A great time was had by all and we spent Christmas day together eating pizza and hot wings, skyping family back home and relaxing. Christmas Belgrade 2011!
1 comment:
Looks like Jen's had some pretty cute socks on already! She's so cute! I love that your kids haven't picked up on the Christmas Eve pj present. We also have that tradition, but I can't for the life of me remember when I figured it out... :)
Post a Comment