Today is December 5, and looking ahead, it already seems that Christmas Day will be here before I can blink. But I am also looking back, over the years when our children were young, and what Christmas traditions we began for our family, what worked and what didn't and which ones mattered to my children.

[caption id="attachment_722" align="alignleft" width="252" caption="Grandpa and Grandma watch Lisette with her new baby doll and stroller."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/LisetteBabyDoll.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-722  " title="LisetteBabyDoll" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/LisetteBabyDoll.jpg" alt="" width="252" height="385" /></a>[/caption]

We tried to keep gift-giving affordable.  We often bought used toys at yard sales. Children do not care if a toy has been played with by another child. A little Lysol, a little cleaning up, and, for a child, it might as well be brand new.

In fact, if I got it at a garage sale and it was still in good shape, that meant it was durable. Not a small consideration when buying something for Andrew who played hard and long, with 110 percent intensity.

And we kept the gifts simple and classic. Baby dolls and strollers. Puppets and Legos and wooden building blocks. Games like tic-tac-toe or Aggravation. Our family has always liked board games, so most Christmases our children would get a game as one of their gifts. Then part of Christmas fun was playing them together.

[caption id="attachment_723" align="alignright" width="273" caption="Andrew and his game of tic-tac-toe."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/AndrewTicTac.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-723 " title="AndrewTicTac" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/AndrewTicTac.jpg" alt="" width="273" height="173" /></a>[/caption]

For years we lived in Illinois and my husband's parents lived in Kentucky and my parents lived in Georgia.  So Christmas always meant travel in a car. We'd spend one Christmas with his folks and the next one with mine.

We were determined to keep some of our own family traditions , regardless of where we celebrated the holiday.  How we did that will be in tomorrow's post.