Mary Angel

(12/2018) I absolutely love this time of year, actually, most of it. I can’t stand to be cold and obviously I am always cold this holiday season. The rest of it I love; all of the family time, decorations, carols, friends, and food. Every year I talk about traditions and how much I love traditions. I have explained some of our traditions and how they came about. I have neglected to mention that if you only focus on current traditions you may miss the start of new ones.

A few years ago my aunt gave me a family ornament with 5 Christmas frogs on it. She had each of the frogs labeled with one of our names (there were only five of us at the time, as I believe my youngest was only a dream at the time). Since then someone has always given me one of the personalized ornaments, each year with the appropriate number of characters. Had she not given me that ornament I would have the joy of seeing them all on the tree every year and the excitement of unwrapping the new one on Christmas morning. I absolutely adore this tradition. Sometimes traditions can be started by someone outside the house. Sometimes they are started by a need outside the house.

My Christmas craft day started when some friends were commiserating that they couldn’t find time to Christmas shop without the kids. Suddenly I found myself planning a kid’s craft day at my house about 3 to 4 weeks before Christmas. We would have craft stations where the kids could make a different gift for their friends and family at each station. There were anywhere from 8 – 12 kids each year and up to 15 craft stations. In addition to the crafts, we would have a Christmas movie playing in case someone wanted a break and some sort of Christmas snacks. As the years went on I also learned to have boxes labelled with each child’s name so the gifts didn’t get mixed up while they were drying. Through the years the kids have changed but the sentiment and joy has remained the same. This tradition in particular holds very fond memories for me, since this was something I did with my mother-in-law before she passed away.

Another tradition that holds a special place in my heart is our "Girl’s Weekend". This all started because my parents lived in Delaware and my mother-in-law and I decided to scoop up my preschool boys and go visit her for some Black Friday shopping (all weekend long). It didn’t become a girl’s weekend until my girls came along and the boys were old enough to boycott shopping. Suddenly it was officially a girl’s shopping weekend and a boy’s movie/ eating out weekend. Shopping, eating, movies, laughing, and family is an equations for an amazing tradition. The memories we have from these weekends will last a lifetime for all of us. This is our first year without my mother-in-law and it is a little tough, but my girls pointed out how much Grandma would love us continuing her shopping legacy. They are totally right, she was a shopping queen.

This year I am starting a new tradition for myself. I am going with a bunch of friends to the ladies tea at my church (ironically something my mother-in-law enjoyed for years). Being an introvert this is a little out of my comfort zone, but I don’t want to miss out on an amazing opportunity because I can’t step out of my box. This, I am hoping will be the start of a new tradition that will last for years and maybe even grow. I love the idea of a group of friends filling a whole table at the tea. I know there are a lot of churches that do a ladies tea around Christmas. I would imagine this would be an easy tradition to start, with family, friends, or coworkers. If you can’t find one then (Uniontown Bible Church is where I go) maybe you could host your own. Let’s face facts, a few cookies and some hot water and boxes of assorted teas and you would be off to a great start.

I am looking forward to our elf on the shelf, wrapping the night before Christmas (all of the last minute gifts), making a bunch of Christmas casseroles (this use to be my mother-in-law’s tradition that I have inherited) and hopefully living up to hers, a bloody mary for present opening, making Christmas calendars for everyone, having my parents watch the kids open gifts and opening gifts with my parents, and giving my brother a witty t-shirt to add to his collection. In addition to all of this, I am most definitely excited for my kids to all be home for break. I not only enjoy their company, I am hoping for a new family game for Christmas (wink, wink) and that means family game night which is a family favorite in the area of traditions!

A family game at Christmas time is definitely an unexpected tradition. It was neither planned nor realized until years of family games had gone by. The white house ornaments, that my sister-in-law started and my mother-in-law continued and my husband wants to carry on, were another tradition that wasn’t realized or appreciated early on. Sometimes the traditions that sneak up on you are the most special. Not too many, if any, of our traditions were planned. We just opened ourselves to new experiences and new people and new things and the traditions just happened on their own.

This year I wish you all a family, friends, and fun filled Christmas season and I hope that some new traditions sneak up and surprise you for many years to come! God bless and Merry Christmas!!!

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