A Tradition Was Born

We sort of fell into what is going to be our Christmas Tradition over the weekend. I've been wondering what our little family of 3 would settle into as far as a tradition. I love all the friends and family time that comes with the holiday season, but it's equally important to me that we, the 3 of us, have our own little Christmas time, yet not take away from Christmas with the rest of the family etc.

After the weekend of Christmas activity around our house I think we have it! I don't know that it will always happen in the same order, but the elements are all there and the result is the 3 of us can spend some fun, calm Christmas time together.

Friday night was Santa Picture, BBQ Party (dinner at Dickey's, but Sky thinks everything is a party...which I fully support...please just let Dickey's stay in business!), picking out our tree on the way home, and finishing up with a Christmas movie before bed time.

The real fun came the next day when we finished (!) our Christmas shopping, put up the tree, and had our own tree lighting ceremony.

I really hope that we can teach Sky not to be rushed, rude, and inpatient when it comes to shopping this time of year. That it can be fun, and to just take your time. We all know it's a busy, crowded time of year, embrace it, or stay home and only shop online! I also hope she's never too old/too cool to ride a skateboard through Sports Authority.

Sky learning the fine art of hanging ornaments.

Here's a tip...don't pick your tree out in the dark. I love our tree...let's just say it has personality, but next year we will do so during daylight! 

Our little courtyard and patio are so festive and pretty. I love seeing the lights outside when we're watching Christmas movies inside all warm and snugly. And, even though it was just the 3 of us I have to say we know how to have a fun tree lighting...much better than the sad events the local communities had last year. We swore after lasts years disappointing tree lighting's we were done with that. So, we created our own instead!

Next year it's a trip into the woods and cutting down our own, much bigger, tree. And, even better we are thinking hot spiced wine, cookies, carols, and friends/family coming over for our tree lighting!

I love that we found our "thing" for Christmas.  A weekend of Christmas fun that we can look forward to year after year, and that we didn't plan any of it really. We didn't go into it thinking "this is going to be our tradition". We were just doing our thing and ended up having fun doing it. I've seen numerous lists of things to do/try to make family traditions...and that's great if you need ideas, but to me it just felt like another to do list, and a bit forced.

Mark gets credit for the outdoor tree. Best Christmas idea ever! It's right outside the living room window so we can see it all evening long. The best part is we don't have a tree crowding our little living room, and the dogs/Sky can't mess with it...I was not looking forward to the tree battle and broken ornaments.

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What's your Christmas Tradition?