Christmas Traditions

Brian and I celebrated Christmas with my parents in Montana this year. I haven’t been home on Christmas for three years, so it was nice to have a chance to visit. There’s nothing quite like Christmas on a farm in Montana. Of course I might be biased. Just maybe.

Since this is Brian and my first Christmas together as a married couple, there was a lot of talk about traditions. Traditions are one of my favorite things about the holiday season. They make the holidays richer. More magical. They add warmth and flavor to memories. They increase anticipation of the future.

This year, we each brought traditions with us from our childhood. We also started a few of our own. I like that. It reminds me of an important part of marriage–that we are each individuals with separate backgrounds, come together to start something new that is all our own.

Here are some of the traditions we started in our new little family of two this holiday season:

We bought a box of Hickory Farms assorted meat and cheese–and haven’t eaten it yet. Oops.
We decided on opening one present Christmas Eve.
We are going to buy one new ornament every year.
We got a real tree! It smells amazing.
After Christmas dinner we drove around looking at Christmas lights. Also required: a cup of hot cocoa.
Annual snowball fight (if weather permits).
We will wake up early to watch the Rose Parade January 1st.
We missed it this year, but we want to watch the Michael Buble Christmas Special.

As the years go by, I’m sure we will start even more traditions. Overall, this holiday season has been a blast. I feel so lucky to have a little family all of my own this year.

Merry Christmas!!