Holiday Traditions

For the last couple of years John and I have tried to start some holiday traditions.  Strangely, both of us came together with only one or two family traditions to pass down to our boys.  Aside from Santa, there are very few things John and I do with our boys that remind us of our own childhood Christmases.  For John the big thing has always been to put the presents on the couch.  Personally, I'm a presents-under-the-tree kind of girl, but having the boys come out of their rooms on Christmas morning and seeing a pile of gifts on the sofa makes John really happy, so, that's what we do.  This year Santa will start leaving notes to the boys along with their gifts, something Santa always did for me.  And, that's pretty much it. 

Seeing the Salt Lake LDS temple lights was something I usually got around to most years, sometimes with my mom and dad, sometimes with my grandma, more often with friends.  There was a year here and a year there when I would have a holiday choir concert at a local mall or we'd have family over for Christmas or I was in a Christmas pageant at whatever church I was attending at the time...One of my fondest holiday memories was the little puppet show my mother made with puff balls that was put on to the poem "The Night Before Christmas", in particular I remember the moon with the boobs ("...the moon on the breast of the new fallen snow...") and the one little beleaguered reindeer puppet attached to a sleigh overflowing with a morbidly obese Santa with tags hanging off of him with all the other reindeer names.  I think my mother made that with my half-sister Krissie when I was smaller, I think it came out for a few years, but it is long since lost.

So, we're making our own traditions.  Decorating begins the day after Thanksgiving (much to my chagrin...not a decoration fan. I dont' like clutter, it makes me twitchy.) and the boys put up their tiny little tree with their handmade ornaments.  Right now that's the only tree we have because our place is too small for a bigger one.  The stockings go up over the fireplace and throughout the season the boys get to make art projects and hang them all over the walls (who knows how long they'll want to do this, but right now, they LOVE it.)

 

This year for the first time we watched the parades on TV and we went to see zoo lights, which will definately become a tradition, it was awesome. 

Zoo Lights

John joined us for the Beaverton Christmas tree lighting ceremony which was WAY better than last year when I took the boys by myself. We saw the Christmas Ship Parade on the Willamette (this year we saw it at the end of their route in Lake Oswego which turned out WAY better than last year when we went up to Vancouver to see it at the beginning of the route.) This week we'll go to the Portland International Raceway to see the Winter Wonderland lights which was a huge hit with the boys last year. Not sure if it was the lights or the fact that we were driving on a REAL! LIVE! RACETRACK!

Seeing Santa at the Beaverton City Tree Lighting Ceremony

Beaverton Tree Lighting Ceremony

Christmas Ship Parade

I am fortunate enough to have a group of wonderful friends here and this was the second year that we've had a kid's gift exchange and party.  This year we had Santa come and it was brain exlodingly awesome for the kids who like Santa (Alex), and kind of torturous for the kids who don't (Max).  The same group of friends ditched our husbands and kids for the afternoon yesterday for the second annual white elephant gift exchange and booze fest.  In years past John and I attended eBay's holiday party together which was always fun, but his current company doesn't do a party.  I'm hoping next year John and I can find time and money to go out and do something just the two of us.

I'd love to go to the Festival of Lights at The Grotto, but John's not too interested.  I also hope to take the boys to Peacock Lane this year, but if we don't make it, maybe next.

Last year we went to Utah early in December to see family and exchange presents, this year we'll be going after Christmas until the new year.  While I prefer to go before the holiday, this year's plan will likely become the tradition because John always takes the last week of the year off work and that coincides with Alex's winter break.

 I'm getting less grinchy about the holidays as the years go by and as I watch my boys get excited about the things they remembered from last year, it's impossible not to feel the holiday spirit.