12 Days of Home for the Holidays Welcomes Christy Tomlinson

Christy Tomlinson 

Hello! I am excited to be here sharing my holiday traditions with you! My Name is Christy Tomlinson and I am a mom to 6 awesome kids, wife to my husband Ben and mixed media artist and teacher! While in my normal life I am SUPER crafty, and love to create mixed media art.. my holiday traditions center more around the reason for the season, so I hope you will still be inspired to perhaps take some of these into your home with your families as well! I thought it would be fun to share three of my favorite traditions.. so let's get started! One tradition Always do as a family.. and have since the time my kids were little, are to give them Christmas Pj's on Christmas Eve. Right before bedtime. We gather to read the Christmas Nativity Story (more on that later).. and they each get to open their Christmas Pj's! When my kids were LITTLE I would make them pj's, all the same color.. but now that they are older and that isn't quite so "cool", my husband, Ben and I, always try to find ones that fit each of their personalities. I think the another reason we enjoy it so much is because it gets us all cozy for the rest of the evenings activities.. puts us in a cheerful mood and sets the tone for what we do next. It's fun for me and really fun for them as well!

The second tradition we have been doing as a family since the time our kids were little, was something that came from my husband's family. Every morning on Christmas Day, before we open presents.. we always give OUR gift to the Savior for HIS birthday, since the reason for the holiday is to celebrate His birth. My husband keeps our papers in a safe place and the next year, we get them out and read them and see how we did with our present to Christ. Then we write our present for the following year and give thanks for all that He did for us, and for the blessings we have.

Each Year I try and give something that I know I need to work on. Something that would show My Savior my love and respect and gratefulness I have for all that he has given our family. Things like reading my scriptures more, Being kinder to my children. Attending the temple more often. Finding someone each week to serve in some way (whether taking a loaf of bread to a neighbor, or offering to babysit for a young mom in our neighborhood to give her a few moments of peace during the day). Simple thing really, but things that give back to HIM for what He has done for us. My kids write things such as, being kinder to my brothers or sister. Try not to talk back to my mom. Say my prayers each night. Be kind to those at school that don't have a lot of friends. Etc. They get to write their own, and they also get to keep it personal. (though I do peak and read it lol). It's always such a wonderful way to start out Christmas morning. One of my favorite traditions.

The last tradition we always do each year.. is one that is VERY dear and near to my heart.

As long as I can remember on Christmas Eve, my parents always had us kids, act out the Nativity Scene, Christmas Story. My Parents divorced when I was 7, but both my dad and mom separately in their own homes, always continued that tradition on.. year after year. I grew up with 7 brothers and sisters and so each year, we would take turns getting to play the part of Mary, Joseph, The 3 Wise Men, The Angel and Sheppard's. It wasn't anything fancy.. we would just use our parents robes, sheets for dresses, and towels on our heads tied with my dads neckties, for head wraps. Growing up, my dad owned Many Shelters homes for the Mentally Ill and every Christmas Eve we would act out the Nativity scene while he read it out loud. It was always so neat to watch the faces of those wonderful souls.. who didn't have much in the way of Religion.. being touches by their hearts on that Christmas Eve. As we grew older, my Dad continued the tradition, even up through high school. Once we left the house, got married and started having kids.. he ALWAYS had us over on Christmas Eve, to again.. Act out and Read the Nativity scene, but this time with all the Grandkids. It was just something we always knew we were doing Christmas Eve. No matter what other activities we had planned for that night, we ALWAYS made time for that. As you can imagine as we have grown (my 7 siblings and I).. and our families have grown.. it has turned into a very big affair with over 28 grandchildren participating each year!

MY dad passed away unexpectedly in 2010.. from a massive heart attack at the age 61. It was a very hard time for us and his grandkids because we all witnessed the heart attack in church at my younger brothers baby blessing. It took us all a while to heal and grieve from that experience, as he was a VERY important part of all of our lives. That year for Christmas we had all debated whether we wanted to gather for the holidays.. because we were still just grieving from his death. We weren't sure emotionally we would be able to handle getting together to act out the nativity, as we knew it would be VERY emotional for us and for all of our kids. Just when we had decided that we were going to forgo it that year, when the grandkids found out.. they INSISTED that we do it! It was tradition and Grandpas tradition and just because he was no longer here, didn't mean we should stop doing it. He would want us to do it. Kids are just always so smart. So that year, we gathered again.. as many as could, and held the Christmas Nativity Story.. as my oldest brother read it from the Bible and the younger Grandkids acted out the scene. It was a very humbling and sweet experience for all of us. Many tears.. and of course many laughs (as always.. when you have little children putting on a play).

We were so glad we had decided to continue that tradition and since then we have still continued it as well. It will ALWAYS be a special part of our life and something I hope my kids pass down to theirs as well, that we can also be a part of. So those are my traditions.. simple traditions, not elaborate, no fancy.. and while I DO love to create crafts for the holidays, we also love to make gingerbread houses, create homemade ornaments for our tree, make lots of yummy goodies.. these are the ones that I know for me, are my most enjoyable ones. Just things that remind me of my own childhood, about the reason we celebrate Christmas and the most important thing, which is family. Thanks for letting me share!

xoxo
Christy
Do what matters most, website and blog 
Scarlet Lime, mixed media store and kit club

Photo Tip of the Day

Find your style and shoot with confidence. Photography is objective. Whenever you take a photo, you become the artist. So shoot with confidence. Don’t take a photo a certain way because that’s what you think other people will like, take a photo that you like. When finding your photography style, remember to carry your camera with you everywhere. And don’t forget be original.

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Happy Holidays!