Holiday Traditions To Love: The Traditions My Family & I Love

I haven't really had a chance to get into the holiday spirit the past few years due to having to work long varying hours in retail. Having to work most holidays just kinda killed the fun of since I'd only have a day or so to be with family before it's back to work.

Finally, this year I am able to spend all major holidays with my little family and really embrace all the festivities! I feel like I don't know where to start. It has been such a long time since I was excited to put up a tree. Now that my son is older and more aware of what is going on around him, the holidays are even more fun. His excitement and energy easily gets everyone in a happier mood.

I have been thinking about traditions families implement during the holidays:

What traditions would be perfect for my family?

What are some activities we can adopt and make our own?

What is the look and feel of the holidays we want?

A few things I do every year or would like to continue doing every year once Thanksgiving has past are as follows:

-Wrapping Christmas (and birthday) gifts by hand vs bags (some exceptions may apply)

-Baking homemade cookies (not for Santa Claus though!)

-Christmas Eve dinner

-Christmas Day breakfast (I cook breakfast every morning, but this breakfast will be a little more in bulk)

-Cozying up on the sofa and watching cheesy holiday movies

-Hot chocolate & Coquito (Yasssss...)

- & obviously, opening gifts

I'm working on making sure Christmas isn't represented as solely a day where we give gifts to each other... expensive gifts at that.

I need my son to know that Christmas is much more than gifts. It's about family and being with all who love you. We all should spend quality time together throughout the year, but with the hustle and bustle of life and friends and family being states away, we don't always get to do that. The holidays make it just a little easier to make plans to be together since most people have off from work and school during this time.

I asked my fiance if he would be interested in celebrating Kwanzaa in conjunction with Christmas. Kwanzaa celebrates values to live by. Each day is a specific value that one focuses on and promotes family togetherness, giving back to the community. That's what life should be about! That's what we should be teaching the next generations and future generations.

So, things I'd like to implement in the future:

-family story time: this is talking to my son about the history of our ancestors and even living relatives. My grandma is straight from Puerto Rico and my fiance is straight from Haiti. There is so much deep history to be told and what better time to talk about it than the holidays when we are around other family members.

-A countdown to the end of the year + reflect: We can use this time to reflect on the year and see where we can make improvements and celebrate our victories.

No matter the traditions you celebrate, let's take the time to soak in all the love and warmth to energize for 2018.

I don't know about you, but I am too excited to see what next year has to offer.

Happy Holidays!