New family, new traditions

So the title may be a little mis-leading as I don't have a newish family, infact my first Christmas with David was last year but apart from the opening of presents and the dinner it didn't really FEEL like Christmas due to all the stress and what with us being cramped in a tiny 1 bedroom house.  This year I feel so much better I'm in a 2 bedroom house where David has his own bedroom and although I'm no longer with his father I am much happier.  So today I want to talk about the traditions I grew up with and the new traditions I want to introduce with my own family.

My childhood Christmas traditions (basically a rant)

So when I was younger Christmas well I think it made me more impatient then ever.  We would wake up and have our stockings.  Our stockings were pretty good not gonna lie but because they were knitted everything would get caught..all except the orange....typical.  Then you would think that we would go downstairs and open all our presents up....WRONG.  No infact we weren't allowed to open up our presents until after dinner.  When was dinner time I hear you ask?  Not until 3pm!  Yep that's right I swear Christmas was sometimes like hell. Dinner consisted of the average Christmas meal and of course we all had to say Amen and say thank you for the food.  You'd think my mum would be the one going round the table "have you got enough" but actually infact it was my dad.  Due to the Peter Kay sketch I call him the Rivita man. We also had to watch the Queen's speech every year (no offense queeny but when I'm growing up of course it's gunna be boring). Oh by the way before I get to the opening of presents I would just like to say that we were not allowed at all to decorate the tree in the way we liked, oh no.  My mum had a strict routine,  lights first, tinsel and beads second then decorations.  That sounds simple enough but wrong again certain decorations had to be put in certain places or they "wouldn't look right".

 Right back to the present so like I was saying we wouldn't be allowed to open our presents up until the afternoon (this being that this was the way mum was raised due to her mother (my nan) being chruchy and it was a tradition that Christians would not open presents up until after the afternoon Christmas service).  Not only did we have to wait agessss but we also had to take note of who they were from so we could write down the names to write thank you letters.  My mum also used to try and get us to open the presents up nicely so she could save the wrapping paper....yeah that never happened. After all that we sat down and played with our new toys and sometimes went round to visit our nan on Christmas if not boxing day as well.  We would sit there and play board games and watch my brother lose control and get angry 'cause he was a sore loser which was hilarious to watch.  Not to mention get fat eating cheese and watch my mum go through a whole packet of salted nuts and my dad the same with his bombay mix.  Christmas was good but it made me impatient and in the mornings made me angry with my mum but with the help of my siblings we slowly but surely changed that. (even if she still obsesses over that damn tree!)

My family traditions

So first of, my son and any future children I may have will be opening up their presents as soon as they wake up I am not gunna be stopping them.  Right got that out of my system, however lets start with Christmas eve.  I never have in my life got new PJ's on Christmas Eve I never even thought to start this tradition before I saw it on the net.  I looked at this Christmas Eve box that was going viral and thought....my god this is amazing and fun :D.  So from now on every Christmas Eve my son shall get a Christmas Eve box.  This year I shall be filling it with new PJ's, mini marshmallows, a new book to read before bed, a dvd to watch together, a new cup and a sachet of hot chocolate.

chibi avenger PJ's from Next

When David wakes up he will wake to a stocking at the end of his bed (just like I did) this year it will be filled with: 4 bath toys, a bath book, another new book, play dough with number cutters, chocolate, an orange, whiteboard pens, cutlery set and a car.

filled right to the top O_O

Then we shall start off with breakfast whilst he plays with his stocking. Breakfast this year will just be a normal breakfast though next year I shall be buying the little boxes of cereal you can get I always loved that as a child and think David will too. After that it's time to open up presents! I'll let David go mad (though I might have to help him a bit lol) we shall be swimming in wrapping paper and we all won't care as I'll see the smile on his face.  Normally I'd be making dinner at this point (well I would of put the turkey on the night before) though this year we are going out for Christmas dinner as I've been invited by Matt's parents. I've never eaten outside the house before on Christmas day so it should be a new and fun experience.  Whilst in the area I shall visit my family where we shall spend some time together.  After that go back and assemble all of David's presents if we have not done that before hand lol.  Next year will be difficult as I don't know what will happen with David and his fathers contact.  This year his father is to spend time with him on Christmas Eve,  I said to him that he can keep him for a bit longer as he won't have him Christmas Day.  Next year hopefully we shall get on better and he can have David on Christmas Day and I have David on boxing day though I admit it shall feel weird.  Though Christmas is just another day and I shall turn my boxing day into Christmas Day and make it extra special. Though I'm hoping in the future me and David's father can both spend Christmas together for David's sake and David can wake up here and his father can arrive early morning and we can both cook Christmas dinner and watch our son be happy together.  That's in the future though something that probably won't happen for a long time.

Well that's it for this blog....went on quite more then I thought I would ha ha.  I hope you have a fantastic Christmas!  Do you have any traditions any new ones?  If so please comment I would love to know ^_^.