A few of my favorite Christmas things

One of my favorite specialty desserts to make is chocolate-chip pecan pie.  I never really liked pecan pie until I came upon this recipe Taste of Home Chocolate Chipper Pie Mix.  It's become one of our family Christmas traditions.

I love to decorate pretty much the whole house with several different Nativity scenes or music boxes I've collected over the years, not to mention several Nutcrackers which are a favorite of my grandsons.

I love multicolored twinkling lights throughout the house with little churches and villages lit up here and there.

I love to donate at least one Shoe box to the Operation Christmas Child each year.  This year they are allowing us to track it to see which Country it goes to.

When my girls were little my husband would always read the Christmas story from the Bible, usually in the book of Luke.

As they've left the home, my husband and I continue to read it, but have found many devotionals to read from.  Now I have a basket containing an assortment of Christmas readings.

I even enjoy watching The Nativity Story at least once before Christmas day.

Another favorite thing is a game we like to play called Dirty Santa; which its called out here, but I used to know it as the White Elephant game.  You usually wrap an unwanted item from your home and its fun to see what everyone comes up with.  Lol!

We draw names and each person takes a turn picking up a wrapped gift or if your the second person and so on, you can choose a wrapped one or steal from another if you see something you like.

A few of us get a little sneaky and actually put something nice in the mix.  That really starts all sorts of craziness!

We say once a gift has been stolen twice, then it cannot be chosen thereafter.  We usually end up laughing until we have tears!

What are some of your favorite Christmas things?

Hope you enjoyed a peek into a few of mine!  ;)