Tradition 1: Ornaments

I thought I would start with this tradition because it started before I was born.  It started when my sister had her first Christmas if I remember correctly.  Every year, sometime after the tree was up but before it was too far into the Christmas "season" my dad would take us shopping for Christmas ornaments.  Just us and dad.  We could pick out anything we wanted (well, within reason) and I remember really looking forward to this special time with dad.  It also made setting up the tree so much more fun because we always looked at our ornaments, figured out how old we were when we got them and got to relive some of those memories.

Grace's first Christmas I remember telling my husband how important this was to me and INSISTING it was a tradition we needed to continue.  He is a trooper :)  Grace has two daddy-daughter ornaments on the tree so far and I'm excited to add one for her and Abi again this year.  All with their names and the year on it so they can look back and remember them.

Our other fun ornament tradition started the year Grace was born with hand print ornaments.  Every year I have gotten some plain ornaments and paint and had her put a hand print on them.  She has three up now and Abi did her first one this year!  I remember the first year trying to pry her little fists open with Joie and getting paint everywhere.  It was awesome.  This year her hand prints aren't smudged and look great! 

I'm not a huge fan of the Christmas tree as a symbol of the holiday but I LOVE that it contains memories and moments that we can continue to cherish.