Christmas Traditions

Christmas morning - can't you tell we just woke up? Traditions are important family heirlooms that we pass down to our children giving them a special family identity. Our traditions include the Christmas Eve service, appetizers and a present around the tree. We had arrived home from London on Christmas Eve around 9:00 so we missed the Christmas Eve service, there wasn't time to make appetizers so we enjoyed cheese fondue instead but we did open a present!

When Dennis and I first got married, we did not discuss our family traditions or holiday expectations ahead of time so when I expressed excitement about the gifts we would open on Christmas Eve, it was followed by the comment, "What do you mean open a present? We're not doing that, we wait until the morning."
(Gulp)"We always opened a present at my house."
"Well, that was your house." Hating confrontation as I do, I went up stairs in tears leaving Dennis and his family in the living room. Obviously, he came upstairs and we did have the important discussion on expectations and traditions and our Thompson tradition now includes a gift on Christmas Eve. Often, the kids give the gifts that they bought for the family which they are so eager to give.
Another tradition we have is to buy an ornament to symbolize the year or remind us of a trip we went on. After 20 years of collecting ornaments, we have more than can fit on the tree but each year we reminisce as we decorate. (Nathan dreads one ornament that we got before he was born that has a little person for the four of us that made up our family before he joined us in 1998. Often we find this ornament hidden in the back down low.) There are ornaments from trips to the beach, Grammy's 60th in Atlanta, skiing in New Hampshire with Dad and Margaret, a camping trip to the Grand Canyon, a doctor to symbolize Julieanne's year of hospital visits and doctor appointments when they were trying to figure out that she had reflux and asthma, ballerinas and Nutcrackers for Anna Catherine's life long pursuit of ballet, bikes and Hot Wheels to document those favorites of Nathans, and now we've added a Scottish bagpipe player and guard from Buckingham Palace. It would be great if I could show you these on the blog but as you can see from the picture, the tree was so dry it would barely hold the ornaments and came down right after Christmas so the ornaments are packed away. As you see, here are a few pictures I had in the computer from those eras.
Perhaps the tradition we will add after living in England will be Christmas crackers (see earlier blog) or mince pies. When our children are married, they will need to have that all imporatnt conversation on expectations and new family traditions. For now, we'll keep adding ornaments to the tree.