I have strong opinions about tradition. I come from a long line of folks who love Fiddler on the Roof. Plus, I know how tradition and memory help ground a person.
When the DH and I got together, he didn't have many Christmas traditions. I had several from my family, but we wanted something that was just ours for Christmas. The main things we have now are selecting at least one new Christmas tree ornament together and going on the Christmas Ships. We also share some of my old family traditions, including putting a chocolate ladybug in the toe of our Christmas stockings and reading the Christmas story on Christmas eve.
Well, this year seams to have turned out as the year the traditions didn't happen. There was a huge storm the day of our Christmas ships reservations, so we didn't make the treck out to the docks in Kirkland to go. Because of all the snow and storms, I couldn't make it downtown to Cost Plus to find chocolate ladybugs. The ornament we were looking at in Hawaii somehow didn't get purchased (but Mom sent an ornament, so maybe we can consider that our ornament for this year), and we didn't even read the Christmas story on Christmas eve.
It may sound like a very sorry Christmas, indeed, but really it was wonderful. Instead of our normal traditions, we had the 9 days of Christmas from my parents, went to our friends' house for Christmas eve homemade pizzas (their Christmas tradition) and had a wonderful visit with firends there, we both recieved lovely gifts from each other, and we had a wonderful time with the local family here for dinner on Christmas day and seeing some of the neat toys the nephew got for Christmas.
Out of this, we may have a couple of new traditions. I like the Christmas dinner on Christmas day and I think we'll keep doing that. We had smoked turkey (divine!!!) and I think that may become our Christmas staple. We may have to join the Christmas eve pizza eaters, too. We had a great time making our individual pizzas and sharing with friends.
In the end, I learned that the most important part of the holiday is who I spend it with. In spite of the snow and mixed up plans, we had a wonderful holiday. I'm so blessed with my wonderful family and happy that we got to spend time together without the interruptions of work. The most important tradition still happened. I spent Christmas with the DH.
3 comments:
Sounds like you two had a great time with each other, and were able to try out new things. I like it when we can mix up some of the traditions we are used to on Christmas. We too, collect ornaments each year as one of our traditions. We've purchased a red ornament of some kind every year since we've been married.
I was so happy you guys were able to come for pizzas. It means a lot to me to have close friends taking the place of my family on that night.
I've learned to let go of the traditions when needed and just go with the flow. It makes for more enjoyable holidays, but the traditions are certainly fun and important.
I will Try to remeber to bring Persepolis two in on monday and send it home with PJM....hope you liked the first one!....have a wonderful new years~!
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