Today Sandra is hosting a Holiday Traditions meme asking us to share our special family holiday traditions with each other. I absolutely love traditions especially at Christmas time. I grew up with many holiday traditions and I hope to pass many of these along to my own children. Two holiday traditions that stand out for me are having a Christmas Eve fondue and playing the game of Spoons.

Fondues are so much fun and such a great idea for when you have company over….the entire meal can last for quite awhile and so you have lots of time to really enjoy each other’s company, eating and chatting and don’t forget singing! Drop a piece of food off your fork into the fondue pot and you have to sing a song! We will usually have a few fondue pots going….two for oil, one big one for cheese and don’t forget chocolate fondue for dessert. Yum!

After dinner clear the table and get ready to play a game of Spoons! Spoons is similar to musical chairs expect with spoons of course. You all sit around the table and you put enough spoons for everyone minus one in the center of the table. Then you take a regular deck of cards and take out enough sets of four as there are people playing. Shuffle these cards and deal them all out. Each person then passes one card at a time around the table until someone gets a set of four. This person then ever so quietly reaches for a spoon and watches as everyone else scrambles to get a spoon as well. Of course because there aren’t enough spoons someone is going to come up short. That person gets a D (as in Donkey) on the scoreboard and the play continues. When someone has “lost” enough times to spell the word Donkey they are then out of the game and from that point on nobody is allowed to talk to that person. If you do you too are out of the game. Be careful though because the person out is allowed to do whatever it takes to make you talk. This game is so silly and hilarious however I don’t recommend you sit beside anyone with long fingernails as you may go home bloody and bruised!

This year I’m also hoping to incorporate even more family traditions into the holiday season specifically trying to keep Christ in Christmas. I wanted to find a way to remind my kids daily the importance of the season….the birth of Jesus Christ. A couple of weeks ago Shannon from Rocks in My Dryer posted about the Jesse Tree as her Works for Me Wednesday post and I immediately knew this was something I wanted to do with my family. If you haven’t heard about it you can refer to Shannon’s post here or you can also find out more directly from the author of the Jesse Tree here.

Finally, I want to tell you about a beautiful Christmas blog that Lindsey from Enjoy the Journey has started specifically for the purpose of helping all of us find ways to keep Christ in Christmas this season. The site is called Advent for Evangelicals…..it officially opens today and I am so excited about it. Thanks Lindsey!

Don’t forget to head over to Sandra’s now and visit the other participant’s blogs…you may just find a new holiday tradition for your home!