Christmas Traditions

Kristine asked a while ago about our Christmas traditions, so I thought I'd finally post about them now. Traditions are what makes Christmas such a fun time of year! I'd like to know what yours are as well, so everyone who reads this, please blog about your own traditions. Maybe we'll find some of each other's that we want to adopt.

So, here are some of our more unique traditions:

1. Annual Ornaments
For as long as we've been married, Chris and I purchase one new ornament each year to hang on our tree. I love this tradition-- especially since we're celebrating our 9th Christmas togeter, it's so much fun to look back at all of the ornaments we've collected over the years. These little objects have such great memories associated with them!

In addition, since Tom's birth, we and both sets of grandparents have given the kids ornaments each year. With three new ornaments a year, Tom's collection has already surpassed ours! The fun part about this tradition is that the boys get really excited about their own ornaments as part of the family tree. Then, when they are ready to move out on their own, they'll have a whole bunch of great ornaments to take with them.

This year, we bought a cute moose ornament while we were in Jackson Hole in June. I'll post a picture of it as soon as we get the tree up (TUESDAY!!!).

2. The Newsletter
First of all, let me express my sincere gratitude for all of the people who still send Christmas cards! I don't know why some people feel like cards are a thing of the past. I love Christmas cards and I intend to continue sending them until... well, I'll send them forever.

Every year with our card, I also send a family newsletter. My newsletter seems to get more and more elaborate each year, but what can I do? I really do enjoy putting them together! Here's ours for this year, in a newspaper style:

3. Christmas CD
For the last couple of years, I've made a Christmas compilation CD for my siblings. This year's included a funny techno Jingle Bells, some jazzy Dave Brubeck, and a couple of songs from James Taylor's Christmas Album. By the way, this album is great-- it has a really good version of "Go Tell it on the Mountain" that Thomas loves. It's way too cute when he sings along!

This year, Chris also made a CD for his siblings, a cool jazz mix. This is a fun tradition that I think we'll continue as long as we can find Christmas music to share.

4. Scrapbook
I decided to start a new tradition this year and make a Christmas scrapbook. I am making pages with descriptions of our ornaments, and pictures and memories from previous years. In future years, I plan to make one page per year to put in the book so that we will be able to remember all of our fun holidays. We always have so much fun in December, and I want to be able to look back and remember each year individually.

Merry Christmas!