Christmas Traditions

Here in the Pino household, we take our Christmas traditions very seriously.  The tree does not go up until after Thanksgiving.  (Except for that one year my dad had the day before Thanksgiving off so he decided to put it up.  It was not a pretty sight.  Never again.)  Then on Thanksgiving Day, we kick off "The Pino Family Christmas Movie Festival."  We start by watching Christmas Vacation, then continue on until just a few days before Christmas when we watch Elf. Unfortunately, between my dad's call schedule and my work schedule (I work 2 p.m - 11 p.m. Thursday-Monday) we only watched the first and last movie.  We don't just watch Elf, we have a party ... a pajama party to be exact.  My dad dresses up as Buddy and family friends come over decked in their p.j.s to watch the movie.

Like father, like daughter.  I was so excited to have footie pajamas with a hood to wear this year.  You'd be surprised how hard it was to find.  I could only find them with footies or with a hood, but never both.  My mom found these at Sears.

The moms called this picture "Elf Unplugged" 

Aaron's seeing eye dog, Joel, and I are best friends.  At one point, we even held "paws" during the movie.

Pups and pajamas, it doesn't get much better

Remember how I told you we're serious about our traditions?  I wasn't kidding.  If you don't wear your pajamas, you have to wear a pair of mine, namely a dress nighty from Victoria's Secret.  The top picture is from 2009 when Austin didn't wear his and the bottom picture is from this year when Nick didn't wear his pajamas.

What are some of your favorite traditions?  I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas!