Just a Few Christmas Traditions

It's snowy, icy, rainy, slushy, and just plain depressing outside today.

I think my poor hubby got sick this weekend spending hours outside on the roof putting up our Christmas lights.

Note...it took 2 days, 4 hours, and 2 trips to Michaels to finish our lights.

Not to mention, I made him take the first string of lights he did on our roof down because I didn't like the color! 

Thank God for a patient husband!

But they look awesome! (Thanks honey...)

I love Christmas time.

It's not just because of the decorating, the lights, the trees, the gift giving, and the music.

I love it because it's a time of year when a LOT of people celebrate Christ.

I think that's a great reason to celebrate!

I also love family traditions. 

I think it's important to have on going family traditions, because I want my kids to grow up and have fond memories of their childhood at home.

We always put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving and take it down the day after the New Year.

This year we put it before we left for our Texas trip since we weren't going to be home for the day after Thanksgiving.

(and yes...I have a fake tree because I don't want to clean up after a real tree)

Every year, each person in our little family gets to pick out a special ornament to add to the family Christmas tree (of course, I picked out Mattis's this year since he OBVIOUSLY can't pick out his own yet).

I write the year and the name of the person who it belongs to somewhere on the ornament.

It's a lot of fun to see what ornaments we picked out in the previous years as we decorate our tree each year.

I also do a yearly "family ornament" with a family photo on it.

It's cool to see how our family has changed over the years as we put up our tree.

Our family does two Christmas trees.

We do our "Family tree" and our "Marine Corps tree".

Our Marine tree has all Marine Corps related ornaments and patriotic colors on it.

I buy new ones every year to add to it.

The family tree on top and the Marine Corps tree on bottom.

Our two trees :-)

Every year, we send out a family Christmas card to our close friends and family.

And my awesome husband is always more than willing to endure a family photo session every year for the Christmas card.

This year, we had a friend of mine from high school take our photos while we were in Houston.

He owns his own photography business, and after stalking his Facebook page for months, I decided to hit him up when we were home.

If you're in the Houston area check out Danny Boyle Photography!

In the recent years, I've become a huge fan of Tiny Prints to make our cards.

They have such amazing and professional quality cards, adorable templates, great customer service (I've only had to use them once for a problem with shipping), and for the quality of the card you get, the price is well worth it!

So I present to you...

The 2013 Romer Family Christmas Card!

What are your family traditions?