Christmas Traditions

I'm a pretty nostalgic person who likes traditions and routines, so it's no shocker that I like to reminisce about past Christmases and all the fun traditions I grew up with.

Here are some of them that I look back fondly on:

-Church on Christmas Eve at Pilgrim Church in Plymouth, MN

-Christmas morning - presents and gifts in our stockings

-Aunt Carolyn's in the afternoon on Christmas Day (and they had dogs, so we got to pet the dogs, a big deal since we never had a dog of our own!)

-We would always drive through same neighborhoods in Minnetonka each year on the way to Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Larry's house

-Mom made cranberry jello salad, turkey, punch, cookies and all the stuff we loved

-Every year we would put out our stockings that Grandma Larsen hand-made.

-We got to decorate our tree with all of the ornaments that we made at school, girl scouts, etc.

-We got to 'pull the string' on an old wood music box that always hung in hallway and it played Jingle Bells. I still have it and put it up in my bedroom. Whenever I pull the string now, it brings me back to our New Hope house and all of those years growing up where that hung in the exact same place. It's amazing how many memories it can bring back with that silly little song!

-It seems to be a lost art these days, but in our neighborhood growing up, most people put up outdoor Christmas lights and I LOVE THEM!