Ooooh! I was tagged!

Meredith tagged me in this super cute Christmas poll about traditions! Here I go...

1. Well, this seems like cheating since it's straight c&p from Meredith, but we also do the Pickle Ornament tradition in our house!
Legend says that the pickle, a symbol of good luck, was the last ornament to be placed on the tree. The first child to find the pickle on Christmas morning was rewarded with an extra gift left by St. Nicholas.The tradition encourages children to appreciate all of the beautiful ornaments on the tree, rather than rushing first to the presents that Santa has left them.

2. Every Christmas eve, we all attend the Christmas Eve Candlelight service at my grandparents church. After the service we go over to Stephanie and Hank's (friend of my parents, I used to nanny for their children) house for the Christmas Eve party! That's when we all exchange presents with gamily friends and eat drink and be merry!

3. My youngest brother, Simeon, is 13 years younger than me. When he was 3 and I was 16, he would NOT STOP tryin gto sneak downstairs to peek at what Santa brought him! That year, we dicided that from then on, we (myself, Harrison-8 years younger than me- and Sam- 10 years younger than me) will build a fort (made of sheets) in Sim's room and make him sleep in the far corner of it so he could not escape. 7 years later, we still do it! Over the years, it's gotten more high-tech (xbox and cell phones are in the fort now), but it hasn't changed! This will be Joe and my first "married Christmas"- we're trying to decide at the moment if we should sleep in the fort together (liek my brothers want us to do!) or stay at our house since we're so grown up now!

4. On Christmas morning, we wake up (at 8-o-clock on the dot- Thank you, Simeon.) and meet at the top of the stairs and wait for mom and dad to tell us we can come down. They go down, make the coffee and turn on the lights, then come back up to us where we read the end of the Christmas story from the bible (the part that envolves a man named Simeon), pray and head downstairs to check out our stockings and what Santa brought (yes, Santa still brings me stuff)!

5. After this craziness at my parents' house, we all go over to my aunt's house for breakfast. Everyone shows up (all aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents) and we eat SO MUCH FOOD! The star of breakfast, however, are the sausage pinwheels that we only eat on Christmas morning- and then not again until the next year!

Now, I want to hear about YOUR traditions. Here's the deal, I'll tag you and link to your blog. Copy and paste the above image into your own blog, and then lather, rinse, repeat!

I'm tagging.... Abby and Ashley (although- homegirl doesn't post because she's too busy with a newborn!) ... not many people, because I forget who else has one of these!