Six Geese a Laying?

So here we are a couple days before Christmas and I'm still on this Twelve Days of Christmas kick.. I think I'll change that to the Six Days of Christmas so that we will all be ready in time.. Instead I'd like to talk about "doing"  the things that make Christmas such a special time of year as opposed to "buying" things..

At our house we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE celebrating Christmas (and any other holiday for that matter) and although we are a relatively new little family ( five years and counting!), we already have some traditions we look forward to every year..

Singing/Playing Christmas Songs..
So immediately after Thanksgiving we pull out the preset playlist that hubby put together a few years back for the car and house.. I've been complaining that there aren't enough "soulful" songs but after he pointed out all of the James Brown and Brian McKnight song.. I retracted my statement.. well not out loud..

At any rate, I realized today that in addition to the traditional Rudolph and Frosty songs, my 3 year old knows the words to:

Mele Malikimaka (The Hawaiian Christmas Song) by Bing Crosby
This Christmas by Donny Hathaway
Mr. Grinch and most other songs from the Glee Christmas Album

Makes my heart proud...

Lighting a fire and watching Christmas movies.. 
That includes all movies with any Christmas scene.. So when munchkin goes to bed we watch:

Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd
Coming to America with Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall (I see a theme happening)
Oh and You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks (Love this one!)
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase

Holiday Lights Tour
This year, I made hot chocolate and popcorn and we all piled in the car in our pajamas (right before bed time) and cruised a couple of neighborhoods ooohing and aahing at Christmas lights.. Make sure to do this right before bed time.. Then just slide your little elf under the blankets when you get home:)

Baking Cookies
Speaking of little elves.. My special elf, helped me get ready for my pal Beth's Annual Cookie Exchange..

We made Madeleines again this year! I use this recipe.

And thanks to inspiration from TomKat Studio, I updated my holiday Labels!

My favorite part of this gathering: SNACKS!!

and Cookies!!

The host made the below, which were very reminiscent of little pecan pie bites.. When I got home that night I left my cookies in the car, and remembered these were in there at about midnight.. lets just say there were crumbs in my bed the next morning:-(

Fun Times!