Family Tradition!

We made the news!! Well, the news at my husband's company, anyways!

Jared works for a very large greeting card company & this year the area he works in wanted to do an article on holiday family traditions! Jared & several other people were asked to tell about some of their own personal family traditions, & lo & behold, Jared's were chosen to be printed for everyone to see! What fun!

I was so excited when I read the article for myself, to see that Jared mentioned not only an old Christmas tradition that we do in our home, but he also mentioned a new one we started once we knew that our nest would be expanding with a little addition!

Between the two of us, Jared & I have lots of traditions that we brought to the table once we got married! It has been fun to carry them out each year, tweak them here & there, & even make our own new traditions along the way! I could make a list a mile long of all of the little moments & traditions that make our Christmas truly "ours", but for the sake of not being here all night, I'll just tell you about the ones the hubster made the "news" about *wink*!

Jammies Tradition!

Each year, for as far back as I can remember, on the Eve of Christmas I got a special package to open! Inside that package was a special pair of Christmas Eve jammies! Sometimes they were warm & cozy fleece, sometimes they were soft & snuggly flannel, sometimes they had feet, sometimes they came with slippers. And even though I knew each year that I was going to open a package of pajamas, it never got old! It actually ended up being one of my favorite parts about Christmas--one of my favorite family traditions! Once Jared & I got married, & he realized how important this tradition of mine was, he continued to carry it out every single year! Every year he goes out searching high & low for the perfect set of Christmas Eve jammies for me, & I do the same for him! It has, & continues to be a highlight of Christmas for both of us every year! And now, it is even more exciting, because not only do we get to search high & low for each other's Christmas jammies, we also get to search high & low for the cutest little baby Christmas Eve jammies! That's the wonderful thing about traditions--the longer they get carried out--the more fun & meaningful they become! So as I sit here & type, there are three sets of perfectly picked Christmas Eve jammies, all wrapped up & waiting under the tree for three warm bodies to cozy up inside of them! We'll all have to wait until Christmas Eve to see what they look like! I love old traditions!

Annual Christmas Ornament!

I never got into the whole ornament thing. I knew of lots of families that chose an ornament every single year, & their trees were covered in all kinds of different figurines & characters dangling on the limbs of their Christmas trees. My family never did that, & it was a tradition I really wasn't interested in. I opted for having a tree with white twinkling lights, matching ribbons & balls, & going for a look that in my mind was more clean & "matchy". Well, last year as I waddled past the great big wall of ornaments in a local shop {I say waddled because I was VERY pregnant},I threw clean & "matchy" straight out the window! All of a sudden, a sentimental wave of emotion came over me, & those ornaments were calling my name! There were trucks & trains, Charlie Brown & Snoopy, super heros & firetrucks, cars & tractors--so many ornaments perfect for the sweet little boy that wiggled inside of me! All of a sudden my mind changed, & I knew it was the perfect time for our little family to take on a new tradition! So Jared & I decided right there in the store that once we had our little boy, that every year we/he would choose an ornament to hang on our Christmas tree at home. And as we started to walk away, thinking that next year would mark the start of our new tradition, I glanced & saw the ornament I could not walk away from. She was adorable. She was perfect. She was a pregnant girl, & in one hand she held a jar of pickles, & in the other a carton of ice cream. Forget starting NEXT year--we would start our tradition right then & there! And so we did! After all, we were already a family of three, even if our little guy hadn't made his grand entrance to the world yet! So we took the pregnant girl ornament home, placed her on the tree, & she looked perfect amidst that clean & "matchy" backdrop!

This year, we stood in front of that great wall of ornaments once again, & chose for our little Jett, this very sweet, very traditional little ornament representing his very first Christmas!

He even helped to hang it on the tree!

And because I am clearly now a sucker for ornaments, I couldn't walk away with just one. So I made up yet another tradition right then & there in the store {you can never have too many fun traditions, right?}! I decided that every year we would choose an ornament for our children...AND we would choose a family ornament!

So this is what we chose for our family ornament this year! I absolutely love it!

One of these days, I will have to pack up all of those sweet little ornaments that belong to my children. I will have to place them in boxes. And I will have to part with them. I will send them away with their rightful owners so that they can take them to their own homes, & hang them on their own Christmas trees to share with their own families. What I love about our "family ornament" tradition is that on the day that I have to pack up those ornaments that have come to mean so much to us through the years so that they can go to another home & hang on another tree--on that day--my tree won't feel so lonely. Those family ornaments will still whisper a reminder of all of the memories we made as a family. I will get to look at each year's ornament, & still get to be reminded of the fun we had that year, the memories we made, & they will stand in place of all the little rattles, firetrucks, cars, trucks, trains, & super heros. I really love new traditions!