Dashing Through These Days: Christmas Traditions

I love traditions.

My mom was great at celebrating birthdays, Christmas, and all the in-between. Those days stood out. I want the same for my family. Part of it is making it special. But a large part of it is that year to year, you remember what made those days special. Things are constantly changing, but the traditions are the piece of the puzzle that remain the same. I'll say it again: I love traditions.

Dallas and I are finding out what worked for us in the past, and what we want for our kids in the future. It's fun establishing new traditions and implementing them into our family.

One thing we have come to love is getting a real Christmas tree. We go the Saturday or Sunday after Thanksgiving and hunt through the tree farm for the perfect one for us. This year, though, it was frigid! And windy! So, we made a rather hasty decision. It wasn't so whimsical, as you might imagine. We eyed a tree, sat in the van while Dallas cut it down, talked to Santa quickly, and bee-lined it home for hot chocolate. Romantic, eh? Not really.

When we got home and got the tee into the house, we realized it was shorter than I. Whoops. Now, we don't have room for a grand tree by any means, but this was something special. We laughed, until Layla said begrudgingly, "How will we even fit all our special ornaments on there?" Maleah could put the star on without being hoisted at all. Oh dear.

I left for an hour, and when I got back, my stellar husband had the problem fixed. He put the tree on a box, arranged a nice tree skirt underneath, and all were happy as clams. Crisis averted.

Decorating the tree is what is so precious to me.

Every year the kids get ornaments. They each have their own box, and wow, what a big deal this is to them. Along with those ornaments, there are handmade ornaments by the kids and others, gifts, ornaments from special places we have visited, first year ornaments, and photo ornaments. It's not a perfectly themed tree. But it is perfectly ours.