It's the Holiday Season

This is my absolute favorite time of year! The weather starts changing, Christmas is getting close, ahh makes me so happy! As a kid my family established several traditions that we still to this day follow...we always had to wait until everyone was awake on Christmas Day to open our stockings, we read the story of Christ's birth from the Bible, and then it was present time! Because this is my second time around celebrating Christmas with a child of my own, I'll be asking for lots of advice from all of you!

It can be a little difficult celebrating the holidays with all your family, and that is something I struggle with figuring out. How do I make time for my husband, daughter and myself but also celebrate with our families? We have the three of us, my side, my husband's side and then with my mom's family and dad's family! Everyone's got such different schedules, some prefer to celebrate on Christmas Day, on Christmas Eve, and others don't care at all! How do you figure out time to celebrate with everyone and not feel like anyone got ripped off? 

This will be the first year that I feel like my daughter will actually understand what's going on so I definitely want to be able to celebrate on our own! My plan is to wake up Christmas morning and celebrate with Russ and Emery before heading over to my parents and celebrating with them and my sisters. 

Now that I have my own little family, it's time to establish our own traditions. Of course I'd like to incorporate some from my childhood, but I'd like to start new ones too! What are some things you do with your families? Does anyone use Elf on the Shelf yet? Do you have gifts from "Santa"? Share some Christmas traditions you do! 🎅🎄🎁