Anyway, yesterday we spent a few hours walking around getting ideas and checking out stores for bargins. Then today we planned on going shopping right after church. First though, Nathan stayed behind at church with Ryan Voloch and David Mertens to talk about a few things, so the girls (wives Lisa Voloch & Sally Ann Mertens) drove up to Starbucks for some girl talk time. One of the main things we talked about was how difficult it is around holiday times to choose, or not choose, between families after you're married. We all had different situations and different takes on things. Ryan & Lisa both have family here in the Burgh; David & Sally Ann's families are in Ohio and South Carolina...too spread out to visit everyone; and we of course have three families, + the entended family, all over WV. Dividing up time between everyone can really drive you CRAZY!!!! For the Volochs, it won't be too hard, they can take their time and visit the surrounding family over time, but I must say I am so pround of the Mertens. They have decided, like us, that they want to start their own Christmas traditions, so they are staying here for their first Christmas together and not trying to visit everyone at once. Can you imagine the 25 hours of driving it would take them to do a round trip to see everyone?
While we were talking about who was doing what and who was going where, I asked about family traditions and what kinds of Christmas things they did. It was neat to hear about how others celebrated my favorite holiday.
In our family, we didn't have too many formalized traditions. One of my favorite was that we had two Christmas trees. One tree upstairs was a formal tree. It had all white lights and my gold ornaments on it. Sometimes Mom and I put red, green, & white bows on it too. The tree downstairs was the family tree. It had the colored lights and all kinds of ornaments; a collection that came from both of my parents and ones that were mine. Nathan and I have talked and some day when we have a house, we'd like to do that too! We already have a fake tree (no real ones allowed in our apt.) so we could also do what we both love to do and go out and pick out a real one.
After talking with the girls this morning I asked Nathan if there were any family traditions from his childhood that he wanted to carry on... he couldn't think of any. But that spurred our thinking about things we wanted to do with our kids. One thing that is very important to both of us is centering Christmas around Jesus. It is his birthday after all. So to try to do that more, here are a few things we are starting that we will carry on with our children and make into family traditions:
- each child (for now each of us) will get only 3 presents. Jesus received 3 presents from the wise men, Gold, Frankincense, & Myrrh. This will help us to remember that the reason for the season isn't presents... plus our children will get enough stuff from our families. Of course we'll do stockings too .. but that is candy and little stuff. (thanks for this one Sally Ann, we loved it)
- its Jesus' birthday, so lets celebrate. Years ago my aunt Mel made a birthday cake for Jesus and we all had a party and sang happy birthday. It stuck with me, and we're doing to do that too... Nathan gets to pick out the type of cake.
- Christmas day will be ours... for our family to enjoy together without all the hussling around. After that, we'll take the time to visit the rest of our family.
- Each year we'll get a Christmas ornament to represent the past year... ie. when we buy a house, we'll get a house ornament. We started this tradition 2 years ago.
For now thats it, but as our family grows we'll probably add more, and possibly adjust the ones we have. We're really excited to have these traditions and to celebrate Christmas for what it really is, Jesus' birthday.
If you've got a really cool tradition that you'd like to share, please feel free to do so!
1 comment:
Luke and I are starting this tradition with our kid(s)== each year they get to pick out an ornament that symbolizes a milestone from the past year (just like yours and Nathan's tradition). When they move out and begin doing a Christmas tree of their own, they get to take their ornaments with them.. and hopefully many great stories to share as they put them on their trees!
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