Traditions

I love Christmas traditions! They make the holidays so memorable. We have a few that I thought I would share today...

First is getting a picture with Santa every year. It's something that I did as a child and I have such fond memories of it. We would bundle up and go to Downtown Seattle, walk around and see the lights and window displays and then go into Frederick and Nelson's Department store and get our picture taken. It got harder and harder over the years to fit all of us on Santa's lap... but we did it. I'm not sure why we split up boys and girls on this one... there were only 5 of us then...

I loved Santa pictures so much that I was a Santa's helper at Frederick and Nelson's one year when I was home from college. It was so much fun!

So, i have been trying to find a way to display my Santa pictures so you could see them all at one time... I found this cool picture hanger at Pier 1 and made these cute little pages and Look! I love it!! I have them hanging by my door.

Second big tradition at the Barnes home is the train set. John inherited a train set from his dad and we set it up every year and have 2 open house nights to show it off. Tonight is the first one and you are all invited to come!

Third tradition is a picture Christmas card. My mom always sent out a photo Christmas card, so I have kept that tradition and added a little twist. We always create our own and have some sort of theme to the card. I put together a little scrapbook this year of all the Christmas cards over the years. It is pretty cute! You will have to come over to see the album...

I found this picture... it was used to make one of the many Westra Family christmas cards. I totally remember taking this picture. It snowed and was melting fast... so we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house because their snow was untouched! And we took this picture. It is one of my mom's favorite family photo's because it is the whole family before it started to change with missions, college, weddings and etc. (you got to love the red cords!)

Here is this years card. (Not a very good scan... sorry. click on it to see it bigger)

I would love to hear what some of your traditions are! Leave me a comment...