Christmas Traditions

Merry Christmas everyone!

I know a couple of you have posted about your family's Christmas traditions... my family doesn't really do anything special, but I have a fairly recent Christmas tradition that's pretty special to me, so I figured I'd write about it. Those of you who know me in real life or follow me on twitter know that I'm sort of obsessed with my neighbors. Stephen is 7 and Daniel is going to be 4 in 2 weeks. I started babysitting Stephen when we moved into our house across the street from them, in 2003, when he was 1. I always watch him when I'm home over breaks and summers from school, and got to be the first person besides family to meet Daniel the day he was born (I kept Stephen all that day while they were at the hospital). Stephen has been my little buddy forever (we've had "sleepovers" and love to go swimming!), and Daniel is no different! I cannot even believe he is going to be 4 in two weeks.

So anyway, about 4 years ago, the boys and I started our Christmas shopping tradition!We go to the Dollar Store on December 23rd or 24th and I help them pick out their gifts for each other, mom and dad, Nanny and G-Daddy, Uncle, and the dog and 2 cats. We have so much fun picking everything out... I absolutely adore watching them decide what to get everyone (and hear their reasons why!). Kids are SO funny. Also I think it's sweet to see young, innocent kids get excited about giving their gifts to their loved ones. I know they couldn't sleep waiting for Santa, but they were also SO excited to give their gifts. And that's half the fun!

So here are some pictures from our adventure:

Here is sweet Daniel, in the car, ready to go!

Daniel at the dollar store, pondering his decisions

The brothers making their decisions

After the shopping was done, Daniel wanted McDonald's and Stephen wanted Chick-Fil-A, so of course we had both! (Am I a good babysitter or what?!) Drove through McDonald's and took it in to Chick-Fil-A so they could play there.

Then later that night I babysat again while their parents went out to do some last minute shopping... here are the boys "helping" me wrap the presents.

So helpful, huh?

When the movie was over, Daniel did want to help though! Here he is holding the ribbon for me. :)
And this is Stephen's idea of help:
Stephen has turned into such a goober.

He cracks me up. He chose a ceramic bird from the dollar store for his grandmother (lucky Nanny, huh?), and as we were wrapping it up he looked at me, dead serious, and said "I picked that for Nanny because girls like breakable stuff and birds." Haha! Kids are so funny.

The goofy boys and all their wrapped gifts, ready to go under the tree!
Here is another picture of them at church for their Christmas pageant... how cute are they?!

And then one more picture... Daniel got a Puppet Theater from Santa that I helped put together at midnight on Christmas Eve. Can't wait to see how excited he is when he gets it!

So there is my favorite Christmas tradition!

What's your tradition?!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!