Traditions

This idea was stollen from Jill's blog, who stole it from Kellie's blog. I am a stickler for family holiday traditions. However, I've noticed over the years how many of them have kind-of melted away with the snow.

As young kids, we would pile into the car every year and drive down to my Grandma's in Texas. This was always a HUGH ordeal. But I enjoyed it, the little that I remember.

As we got older, it became harder and more expensive to make that trip down there, so we stopped. I'm not exactly sure when this happened but it did. So began the tradition of just the 5 of us and Aunt Fran coming over for Lunch/dinner. The only specific tradition that we did that has stuck is that each year one of us plays "Santa" and hands out all the presents. Nothing hugh, but a lot of fun. My favorite memory of this was a year (long, long, ago) when Matt was slated to be Santa. He made us all go down to the living room and wait for him. I few minutes later he came barrelling down the stairs dressed in Santa boxers, a white tanktop with a pillow stuffed in it, and a Santa hat. When he got into the room, he hollered, "HO, HO, HO!!" We all died laughing. I LOVE this memory.

Alas, it started to change I think when the boys went off to college. We spent one year in this tiny 2-room cottage with the family and a few more (plus 3 dogs!), we spent one year with Matt down in Texas, and finally, this year Tim and Jill will not be with us, but in Texas. I know this is the natural process of a growing family but it's still hard.

I'm glad Ian is here to help me refocus on the fun of Christmas. Last night we wrote his first letter to Santa!! (Which I think I forgot about and left in the mailbox for the mailman to gett! oops) He though this was so cool. He's be a big help decorating the house, and I'm sure he's going to be sheer joy as we get closer to the big day.

There is a tradition that we half-way adopted the year we spent in that cottage. It hasn't fully taken over our family but when I have my own family, I will make this a full-blown tradition. It's a scavenger hunt. Each family member pulls another family member's name from a hat. Then they create a scavenger hunt all with clues that lead to a gift at the end. The family we got this idea from goes as far as clues that lead all over town!! I think this is a great fun tradition. Thanks Lynch's!