Christmas Traditions

I thought I'd be smart this year, and started planning some Christmas things ahead. Those who know me personally just fainted. My big idea for this year was to buy the girls one gift together. (More about that here.) I got to thinking that if we did this every year with our children, it might just turn out to be a great Christmas tradition. It would lessen the time my family is spending opening presents and make that time available for something more important. After all, who has enough time at the Holidays? Maybe this tradition would help to shift the focus of the day from self to Christ. Also, it would encourage family time, because if we're getting them one gift to share, it would have to be something they can use together. They couldn't be selfish, because it wouldn't be just their gift. Not least at all, it would save us a bundle. We could set a budget for the gift and no matter how many children we eventually have, we could keep that budget at the same level!
After I came up with this idea, I was really excited! I could see it forming from an idea to a tradition. Then, I got to thinking about the privilege my husband and I have right now. We're shaping our new family, but while we do, we create things like Christmas traditions, and life-long memories.
I can vividly remember making Christmas Tree spritz cookies with my mom, decorating the ugliest tree in the world that we kept about ten years past it's prime on the day after Thanksgiving. My dad reading The Night before Christmas each year. These thoughts even now bring me joy and happiness. They were the traditions and memories created for me with love by my parents. And, now, I get the opportunity to do the same!
This stage of our family feels like we're architects laying the plans and ground work for something extraordinary! Maybe it feels that way, because we truly are. Whatever phases of my life will come and go, I think this period will always be special.
My girls will think about these early years (well, the years they can remember) for their whole life. And, when they look back they'll experience a hint of that same innocent joy that they feel now. The joy I remember feeling when I sat on my dad's lap and listened to him read that same book he read last year, and the year before, and the year before, and the year before...