Traditions

I love traditions, especially around the holidays. Even though my location has changed several times over the years, I try to keep my traditions with me. Not only for my sake, but for my kids, too. With families changing, it sometimes seems impossible to continue the tried and true traditions. But to me its like a building block, something to start with and grow from there. Being so far from family for the previous four years has made it a challenge to keep those traditions alive.

Our Thanksgiving meal has had to move over the years: from the weekend before to the weekend after, based on work schedules. However, it doesn't change the traditions, just because the actual day changes. There are still the familiar smells of turkey, gravy and stuffing. And making pumpkin pies, even when my son didn't like them; I made them anyways, because it's tradition. Sometimes when changing the day, there isn't football to go with the food, so we would get a movie to watch after dinner. And somewhere close to Thanksgiving is another tradition: decorating the Christmas tree.

When I was growing up, one of the traditions was driving up into the Santa Cruz mountains and finding that perfect tree, cutting it down, throwing it into the truck, and driving it home. But location changed that tradition. Enter the era of the artificial tree.

Decorating the tree is a good tradition as well. I'm a "keeper", so many of the ornaments I have are old. I have one for every year I've been an adult (wow, hear the whirrrr of the brains calculating how many that is!! hehehe if you guessed over 30, *ding*ding*ding* you're correct! ) and many from my childhood as well. Picking them out of a box, unwrapping the tissue paper around it, is like greeting an old friend. When my kids were small, when I moved into a blended family, it was important to pass along the history of each ornament. Like the one with a photo of my daughter in it, that she made in kindergarten. Or the rocking horse cut out of dough that my son made. Or the gingerbread man my sister brought home from college in New Hampshire. So many of them have a reason for being a part of the collection. And the stories told year after year keep our memories alive.

This year, my granddaughter is six, and old enough (and CLOSE enough!) to begin hearing the stories as she helps decorate the tree this year. And I'm excited to be able to share this with her. And as she hangs ornaments on the tree, no doubt it will look like so many of the trees in my past .... where decorations are hung only so high .... as high as she can reach :) Just like my kids used to do!!

It's never too late to start a new tradition .......
and I'm thinking hard about what ours might be this year :)

HUGS to everyone!