{"id":517,"date":"2009-12-30T13:09:41","date_gmt":"2009-12-30T19:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/2009\/12\/30\/starting-traditions\/"},"modified":"2009-12-30T13:09:41","modified_gmt":"2009-12-30T19:09:41","slug":"starting-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/2009\/12\/30\/starting-traditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting Traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since we have been married, we have never had the opportunity to have Christmas on Christmas day at our house, just the two of us.  However, with this being Mikayla\u2019s first Christmas I knew I wanted to make that special and do whatever I could to make sure we began some traditions as a family of three (Shiloh was not around sadly).  On Christmas afternoon we headed back to BG for the evening to have our family Christmas.  It was perfect!  We began some simple traditions that I hope we uphold in the years to come.  <\/p>\n

The first was something that I stole from some college friends.  We all got in our pajamas, made some hot chocolate (except for Mikayla, maybe next year), set up the camera timer and took some fun shots in front of the Christmas tree.  Here are just a few.  I will try and upload more to facebook later.<\/p>\n

\"2009-12-25<\/a>     \"2009-12-25<\/a>  <\/p>\n

\"2009-12-25<\/a>     \"2009-12-25<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"2009-12-25<\/a>     \"2009-12-25<\/a> <\/a> <\/p>\n

\"2009-12-25<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is what Ben originally had on before I made him change\u2026I thought he over-dressed his PJ\u2019s a little!<\/p>\n

\"2009-12-25<\/a> <\/p>\n

After that we opened up \u201cgifts\u201d.  As long as I can remember Ben and I have not exchanged gifts.  Instead we help purchase gifts for a family that can\u2019t afford them.  Instead, we just put together stockings for each other (mostly consisting of candy).  Mikayla got one \u201cbig\u201d gift from us and then a stocking as well.  In case you are curious the \u201cbig\u201d gift was a play yard for the house.<\/p>\n

\"2009-12-25<\/a><\/p>\n

 \"2009-12-25<\/a><\/p>\n

 \"2009-12-25<\/a><\/p>\n

 \"2009-12-25<\/a><\/p>\n

 \"2009-12-25<\/a> <\/p>\n

Next, we bundled up in our winter attire (it was really cold here on Christmas) and headed out to a local Chinese restaurant for dinner in our pajamas.  It was so much fun and of course everyone who was there (and it was a packed house) cooed and awed over Mikayla!<\/p>\n

\"2009-12-25<\/a><\/p>\n

 \"2009-12-25<\/a> <\/p>\n

Finally, we returned home and put Mikayla to bed (after three days in Somerset and three Christmases she was pooped, plus she needed to recuperate for the three Christmases ahead of her).  After she was down for the night, Ben and I snuggled on the couch, glasses of wine in hand and watched a Christmas movie<\/a>.  Although I wasn\u2019t a fan of the movie, it was still nice to snuggle with Ben and have some down time in the midst of the crazy holiday season.  <\/p>\n

It was simple, relaxed and perfect!  I couldn\u2019t have asked for a better way to spend Christmas with my tiny family.  Well\u2026maybe if Shiloh had been around!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since we have been married, we have never had the opportunity to have Christmas on Christmas day at our house, just the two of us.  However, with this being Mikayla\u2019s first Christmas I knew I wanted to make that special and do whatever I could to make sure we began some traditions as a family […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,37,7,41],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-ben","tag-christmas","tag-mikayla","tag-traditions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kickert.info\/beth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}