Traditions

Holidays are a time in our family for traditions.  It seems that my mother figured out a way to make each holiday special for us as we were growing up.  It is fun to remember those little things we used to do and now as an adult it is fun to share those traditons with my own family.  Christmas time is always a special time for ourfamily traditions.  I remember when we were little always looking forward to the family Christmas party with our grandparents and my Uncle Ivan and his family.  Each year one of the families would host the party and there would be lots of food and lots of laughter.  Each year we would have a program and everyone was expected to participate.  I remember reading a poem year after year that I had written about Jesus.  I remember one year I decided to play the clarinet and it was awful but I still got applause.  I think Damon played his trumptet and Todd always sang Silver Bells.  I don't remember what Devanie did.  And I remember every year my grandpa would play Silent Night on his harmonica and it was so peaceful and so special and almost brings me to tears as I think back on it now.  And my grandma would always read out of the bible.  Then we would all sing Christmas Carols as my uncle played the guitar.  Oh how I wish we could do that all again.  But life changes. We grow up and move on and hopefully we find a way to keep the traditions going. 
 
Now Matt and I are finding things to make our own family traditions.  We don't sit around and sing Carols but we have found things that we enjoy when the holidays roll around.  Thanksgiving hasn't been a big holiday for us in our years together.  Matt is usually working but we always look forward to the first weekend after Thanksgiving because that is when we go and pick out and cut down our Christmas tree, which is so much more fun than picking one out of Smith's Grocery parking lot. Our friends, The Shaws, have a christmas tree farm full of gorgeous nobel trees and we walk and walk until we find one that we love and we cut it down.  Our tradition is to cut our tree and then on our way home stop at the Helvetia Tavern for a good burger and fries.  The only time that we go to the tavern is on this day and so we have made that our tradition.  We have been fortunate in the last few years to bring along our friends Chris and Angela and this year the Shaws and we all think this is fun and plan to do it for many more years.  As Keegan grows bigger I hope he learns to enjoy this time of fun and good friends and will look forward to it each year and when he is grown be able to look back and remember the good times and carry this on with his own family.  Once the tree is cut and our tummies are full it is home to decorate the house in all the christmas decor.  And boy do we have a lot of it.
 
Another Christmas tradition was helping a family who needed it during Christmas with gifts and food.  Grandpa made this tradition so special for us.  Now as I am older we help by donating gifts to a childrens outreach program locally.  I found the organization through work and so each year we receive tags with donation requests.  I look forward to that warm fuzzy I get after giving.
 
So here is just a few of our family traditons.  I am wondering if any of you have traditions that you would like to share.  If so, I would love to hear them.
 
We wish you all a happy and loving Holiday Season.

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