The holiday season holds so much excitement and a bit of exhaustion for me. It's marathonesque. Lots of running. From his family to mine. And now my family is split in half, which means even more running. Don't get me wrong, I love this time of year. But...in all the event hopping and trying to spend time with everyone we love, we haven't yet carved out any family traditions of our own.
When I look at this picture of Canon from Christmas two years ago, I am struck by how fast it is all going by. Now is definitely the time to start up some new traditions.
What holiday traditions are special to you? Have you started something new or carried on something from your childhood? I'd love to get some ideas.
When I look at this picture of Canon from Christmas two years ago, I am struck by how fast it is all going by. Now is definitely the time to start up some new traditions. 
Posts
7 comments:
buy an ornament for each year. yes, you will have a lot by the end. but it's an ornament that is sentimental to the family for the year. ie: somewhere traveled, events, or special ocassions.
Oooh, I like Smitty's idea. You could also do things like take a family photo with everyone wearing the same color every year ... so you can see how the people grow over the years instead of just the fashions.
it seems that in our family, two Christmas' were never the same. this made it hard to develop many traditions that lasted year after year. but here are some of the traditions that always seemed to happen:
1) we were always togeter as a family. (mom, sister, brother, and me). eventually my grandma joined the list, and in high school my aunts, uncles and cousins were around too.
2) food: we had a handful of items that were always served during Christmas breakfast (this was the big meal for us). egg caserole & Cinnabuns highlighted the meal
3) ornaments: every year my mom gave each of us an ornament to add to the tree. the ornaments were usually themed (although, somewhere in the middle my mom forgot and changed it all!)
4) putting up the decorations: this isn't specific to the day, but we would always crank the music and decorate together. some things we did together, other things (like our own ornaments) were totally up to us.
5) the tree had to be bigger than me! This was developed around 5th or 6th grade year when i started getting tall. it wasn't Christmas with a tree i could look down at. i gave up on this one in high school though, as the trees got expensive!
just some thoughts. but the biggest thing by far was that we were always together (and my mom would remind us of this). since so much change happened growing up(two step dads, moving, etc), that was one of the few constants...and it made the holidays special.
I have several traditions that Curtis and I love every year,but one that I thought your girls would enjoy is that starting about now, we go on the search for "magic pajamas." Cora is still too young to fully appreciate this, but the magic pajamas are to be worn for the first time on Christmas Eve. These, oh so special, pajamas ensure Santa will visit that night. There is an 8 year old at our church that I told about magic pajamas, and now I have to help her shop for them as well because like she said, the store keepers want to keep the magic pajamas a secret, that is why they look at you funny when you ask for them!
we do a whole lot of singing, a whole lot of baking, a whole lot of visiting, crafting, card making, present making, pajama wearing, and this year we're going to try candy making and we did our first gingerbread houses.
i'm not a huge present fan though. i came from an ultra poor family, so i have a really hard time spending money on toys and such. so we donate money to www.sendacow.org every year. last year we bought fruit trees. it felt so right!
we also try to teach the kids to give to less fortunate families. the kids get a real kick out of picking out presents, wrapping them, and then doorbell ditching unsuspecting individuals. and for me it's a pay it forward for all of the years that santa really did come to our house.
Every year that we have been married, we have just followed along with our extended family traditions.
BUT this year, we're going to Concord the weekend before Christmas. So we will actually be by ourselves to start new tradions in our new home for our family of four on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! Woo Hoo!
Two more things... your new header is so pretty and I can't believe how much I can see Elly in this picture of Canon! Wow!
Post a Comment