12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge: Days 1 &2

I know, I know...why am I doing another blog challenge when...

One...I obviously suck at it.

And two...

I'm starting it while I'm out of town on the other side of the country
with very little access to the Internet.

But I can't help myself for 2 other reasons...

One...Its about Christmas.

And two...

Two of my favorite bloggers, Aly and Molly, are hosting it!

Day 1:

Christmas Traditions!!

It is absolutely no secret that I'm obsessed with Christmas. When I was little, I started watching Christmas movies in June...once my birthday was over of course... and Christmas music started about September.

Now that I'm older, I've pushed it back a few months...but not by much. Tons of people think I'm ridiculous, but frankly I hope that I never lose my love and obsession for the Christmas season.

So...traditions. I love traditions...and I'm always looking to start a new one. Some of my childhood traditions were decorating our house the day after Thanksgiving, cranking up a particular Christmas record (yes...record) and singing and dancing to our heart's content. That is usually the very first thing I think about when I think about my childhood Christmas memories. That, and going to my dad's farm to cut down our family Christmas tree.

Then of course there are the basic holiday traditions that we all have. Watching our favorite Christmas movies over and over and over again...

Classic Christmas music by Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby...

And then of course there are the few I adopted when Clinton and I started dating. We spend every Christmas Eve celebrating with his family. We have a great big Christmas dinner, then head to our church for the Candle Light Service. Afterwards, we go back to the house and do Christmas gifts. At first I thought it was so weird that they mainly focused on Christmas Eve, but it works out great because that leaves Christmas Day open for my family:)

Now that we have Presley in the picture, I really want to make sure that we not only keep some of our general traditions, but also create some new ones as well. My sister found the songs on that old Christmas record I was telling you about, and she put them all on a cd for us. I can't wait to crank it up when we decorate for Christmas. Hopefully little P will love it as much as I did!

I'm probably most excited about this year,too, because Pres is old enough to really enjoy and understand Christmas. I can't wait to do some of the fun things with her like baking cookies, doing Christmas crafts, and just watching her eyes light up as we prepare for the holiday season.

Day 2- Black Friday/General Shopping Tips and Tricks

One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving Day is when I get to look through all of the Black Friday Christmas ads haha! And yes, I am a Black Friday shopper! I'm not one of these die-hard ladies that stay out allll day long, but I HAVE to get out in the crowd at some point on Black Friday...even if its only for one store!

I don't really have any tips or tricks for holiday shopping other than sticking to your Christmas list! This is where I fail miserably every. single. year. I always pick up a little something extra here and there, or decide last minute to buy "so-and-so" something, and it always puts me way over budget. This year I am not gonna do it! I know what I'm getting and I'm sticking to it!

And my other tip...don't use credit cards. Please. I will never forget when I was watching the news during Christmas one year, and they were talking about how it would take EIGHT years to pay off $1,000 in credit card debt if you only paid the minimum balance. EIGHT years!!! I mean, I know a lot of people pay more than the minimum, but good Lord!

So there you have it....nothing special, and nothing you haven't heard a hundred times before :)

Well hop on over to Aly's and Molly's blog if you'd like to play along!