Today we packed the massive suv* we rented and headed five hours south to Lethbridge. I love coming to Lethbridge because I love our family. I've been looking forward to this trip since the last time we were here, about three weeks ago. I know that whenever we are here, and especially at Christmas, we will eat good food, have great conversations, laugh a lot, play games, and just enjoy being together.
With this being Laurel's first Christmas, I find myself thinking about Christmas traditions and wondering what kind of traditions she will grow up experiencing. I loved that I always got to wake up in my own house on Christmas morning. Our traditions were simple, but they were ours.
We might think traditions are the things of older generations, but I think they are especially important for children. Yes, traditions can have a way of becoming stale and void of meaning. But traditions can also have a way of grounding us and reminding us of who we are and where we fit in this world. They provide a rhythm to our lives, giving us markers along the way.
Each year as I was growing up, I knew that Christmas would include the Advent wreath, getting a new Christmas ornament, a bayberry candle, church on Christmas eve (as long as we weren't sick), reading T'was the Night Before Christmas, waiting until we were all awake to go downstairs, opening stockings before gifts, the random greeting of "Christmas gift" (don't ask me to explain that one), and seeing cousins and grandparents later in the day. Later we added the tradition of going to a movie on Christmas day.
How do we develop Christmas traditions for our family when we won't be in our own space? Yes, there is the tradition of traveling (and, after all, the people who celebrated the first Christmas had traveled and weren't in their own space). But what are other traditions that we can share and pass onto our kids?
*we requested a crv and ended up with a tank.
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