I love Christmas. I mean I LOVE Christmas! I love decorating. I love re-arranging the packages under the tree a gazillion times before the big day so they look nice. I love my ornament collection that my parents started the year I was born. I love advent calendars and candles. I love Christmas music. I love church. I love it all! But having said that, since I got married, I haven't done it as much. I always thought I'd carry on childhood traditions once I had a home of my own.
The traditions in my house growing up were:
-Church on Christmas Eve, sometimes more than once since we did so much in the services. (Playing the flute for me.)
-Oyster Stew on Christmas Eve (I didn't touch it until I was in my 20's because I was a very picky eater.)
-Passing a box of See's Candies around while opening gifts. (Always a gift from my Great Uncle Dale.)
-Opening gifts from friends and family on Christmas Eve. (Taking turns, one at a time.)
-Opening gifts from Santa Claus on Christmas Morning.
-Large family dinner on Christmas.
-Sometimes a family trip to the movie theater.
I would add: organizing all of my gifts and writing my thank you's as soon as possible. (Type A personality)
Jesse's traditions (from what I gather) were:
-Going with the flow wherever the Army had them gathered.
(He's never really shared "every year" traditions with me.)
Christmas since marriage has been here and there with no set traditions:
2003: In AZ while we waited to actually live in the same country together and were in major transition. Jesse flew in for a few days and we had been reunited with my half-brother, Jon. So it was a new Christmas for a few people that year.
2004: Hosting Jesse's parents for a month, German Christmas Markets, and a trip to Prague.
2005: Scuba diving in icy waters in the southernmost tip of Tarifa, Spain with my sister.
2006: Columbia, SC with Jesse's family.
2007: Christmas on Grand Bahama Island with portions of both of our families and lots of scuba diving.
2008: We were together in Phoenix with my family.
2009: Anna bearing child in Phoenix.
2010: Anna with child #1 in Columbia with all of Jesse's immediate family.
So, now that we have a child, I want to make Christmas traditions come alive again. But, he's too young to really know what is going on anyway and when we are never really home together, I don't feel like taking out the decorations. I haven't opened them since 2006 because we haven't been here since then.
Figuring out when to start traditions of our own is hard to do. We stuck to such schedules and traditions in my family and his family is close to the opposite of this, aside from traditional food. I like the idea of remaining flexible while I yearn to create memorable traditions for my children.
In the end, I think spending quality time with family and/or friends on Christmas whether you're at home with all of your decor, food, and traditions or you're in a foreign place (even if it's a relative's house) with loss of "normalcy," you should be grateful for the memories you are making in that moment, wherever you are. You should strive to remember that Christmas is not always the way it's always been, but rather the way you celebrate the birth of Christ right now. If we manage to carry on some traditions and go with the flow at the same time, we can incorporate things from both of our families and create a special Christmas (if we continue to be so blessed) every year.
Here are the decorations that have adorned our home this year. (Compliments of Fletcher's Godparents, Dave and Michelle)
They were thoughtful enough to give Fletcher his very own Nativity Scene. It is a difficult decision to choose Godparents. I had a very close relationship with mine and I really wanted people that would give our child special attention on his birthday and on the two most important Christian holidays of Easter and Christmas. If nothing else, I wanted this and would hope for even more. We kept going back to Dave and Michelle for various reasons, and not that my other friends aren't Godparent worthy, but I'm very happy we decided to bring them closer into our family circle as an extra positive influence on Fletcher's life. A special thanks to them for thinking of him and helping me decorate the house a little bit for Fletcher's first Christmas!
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