too soon?

before you freak out, these are pictures from last year. so no... my decorations are not up yet. but they WOULD be if it were up to me. i love christmas. i'm trying to not completely bypass thanksgiving, but... i'm THANKFUL every thanksgiving for CHRISTMAS! we usually set up our tree around the second week of november. not joking. so we're a little late this year, but it'll be set up soon. but with christmas on the brain, can't help but blog about it. if you scroll down, you'll see my book christmas tree! entirely made of books. don't have room for one this year, but it was my favorite piece, outside of the tree. 

::MANALLI CHRISTMAS TRADITION::

*we, of course, set our tree up together! abe mostly runs around excitedly until we give him ornaments to put on the lower half of the tree.

*music: charlie brown christmas. must. also frank sinatra, bing crosby, michael buble? always on the list. and the old mariah carey christmas album. 

*ELF MOVIE! to be honest, we can watch this year round. but it becomes completely concentrated around this time of year. abe watches it with us, but maybe we can add polar express or the grinch? we'll see... ;) 

*look at christmas lights. this kept me sane in san diego around this time of year. i'd miss home, there'd be palm trees and sun all year round... which was awesome... but i missed alaska. christmas meant snow to me. so jason would take me out driving to see christmas lights at night so that i could imagine the houses with snow when all you could really see was lights on peoples houses.

*baking... but it has to be russian tea cakes. that's what my mom would make all the time in our kitchen. so naturally when i think of baked goods, i think of russian tea cakes. :) 

*christmas eve pajamas. i mean. c'mon, who doesn't love new freaking jammies to sleep in and wake up in?!

::NEW TRADITIONS::

*christmas camp out: i can't wait to do this with abe!! get the air mattresses out, watch a movie by the light of the christmas tree! maybe make some candle stick s'mores! 

*make or buy an ornament to add to the tree every year

*read a christmas story

*make a gingerbread house. abe is at a good age to do this. i think last year he'd just want to eat all the candy. who am i kidding... he'll want to do that this year too. oh well. still have to do it. 

*visit santa.... errrrrrr, abe probably won't do this. but it's worth a shot. ;) 

*make a giant christmas breakfast! 

*get a nativity set and talk about the story of jesus being born! 

we are going to connecticut for christmas as well. i'm so excited. so are the boys! every time i tell abe we're going to connecticut, he says, "i want to go to nugget!" it's darling. so what are your family traditions? are there ones you'd rather not do? are there ones you'd like to add?