Traditions

The day after Thanksgiving we shop and pull out the decorations. We use a 7' fake tree because I like the height and I put it up that day and leave it up through New Year's Day. A fresh tree, while appealing, just won't last that long.
We used to open a present on Christmas Eve. We haven't done that as much in our little family because BN's family didn't do it and he wants to wait until the morning. I think this year, I'll start buying matching pajamas for everyone and let us open those. I've always loved that idea and think it'll make for prettier pictures. Now that we kids have kids of our own, we started visiting the weekend before Christmas or the one after with our parent's and siblings. It's different than what I grew up with but it's fun for our kids because they don't have to open all their gifts and then have to leave them to go to Grandma's house. We also aren't as rushed for time because we visit our parent's on different days.
My Mom passed down her angel that topped our trees since the year before I was born. She'll be 39 this year and even though she is just made of cheap plastic and isn't fancy, I ADORE this angel. I think my sister is jealous, although she's never said so directly. Unfortunately all the ornaments from when we were younger are long gone and broken. We moved a lot growing up. My mom had some really fantastic stuff and I loved, loved, loved decorating the tree. In fact, with my boys being so young, I'm devastated that I have only been able to decorate the top part of the tree or no decorations at all. Last year, RePete thought jumping into the Christmas tree was a sport. I sure hope he's outgrown that this year. And when he does, I have some very beautiful glass ornaments to display for the boys to sit and ponder like I did as a kid. The wonderment is wonderful.

Her lopsidedness is courtesy of Repete.

~R