Ho Ho The Great Big Ho....

Over the years here at the Smith house, we have developed traditions that help us celebrate the joys of the Christmas season...


Singing Christmas carols is my daughter's favorite holiday tradition...Right now she wows us with her rendition of the Overstock.com commercial..."Ho, Ho, the Great Big Ho"....(yep, we know it's really "O, O, the Great Big O", which btw is seriously just as hilarious to me...)  She loves to belt this out in public...all...the...time....

We also play "Twas the Night Before Christmas"  (which is really just Monopoly dressed up for the holidays...)  Of course, being the generous mother that I am, I make sure I win every time by gobbling up every property I can and charging exorbitant rent prices as soon as possible.  This tradition usually ends with Irish Dancer Girl storming off to her room because she has been rendered financially destitute and Teen Caveboy shaking his head in disappointment at me for my greed.  


We also love making gingerbread!  Gingerbread houses, gingerbread people...if we can gingerbread it, we will!  Last year, our gingerbread house was surrounded by zombies that were taken down by a group of angry princesses.  This year we made a giant gingerbread girl.  Allow me to introduce Ginger....

So I'm just going to go ahead and say what you're thinking anyway....what's with the candy cane boobs?  Yeah, I know...really not appropriate for a child's gingerbread creation...My intention was to add a bit of holiday style to Ginger's dress.  Originally, there was one candy cane heart...when I returned from the kitchen, I discovered a "matching" one had been added by my sweet daughter.  (I won't even tell you what happened when I found gumdrops had been strategically placed in the center of the hearts...what is wrong with my family????)  Anyway, I'm loving this idea for my next gingerbread creation....

Another fun holiday tradition is playing the Christmas Tree game over at noradsanta.org.

The goal is to light up the tree and ornaments by connecting all of the lines.  This game will suck you in for HOURS.  I have been known to disappear for days in Santa's Village completely mesmerized by this horrible and life-force sucking enjoyable holiday game.  (If you decide to wander on over to check it out...pack a lunch and a sleeping bag...)  You can also track Santa's trip around the world starting on Christmas Eve over there too.


We also do daily letters to Santa, Auntie Claus, Holly Claus and Mrs. Claus.
  

We've made cookie dough ornaments (my "Saw" movie inspired ornament for Teen Caveboy was brilliant, I must say...), made sugar cookies (YuMmY) and read tons of Christmas stories.  We have gotten our Christmas on around here, yo!


One of my new favorite traditions, is sipping my hot mexi-cocoa (hot chocolate with cinnamon) and reading this book...

This book will make you giggle long after you've finished reading it.  It's brilliant!  The recounting of his days as a holiday elf is hilarious!  Definitely a tradition that will continue around here.


We are always looking for new traditions to add around here....what are some of yours?


Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!