Christmas Traditions

We have traditions that started when I was a young child that we still do today with our children.

Growing up in Europe for the first 8 years of my life, we picked up the tradition of hiding a pickle on out tree. Whoever finds it first gets to open the first gift. But if you found it this year, you can't look next year!

As long as I can remember, we have had this wooden train that we bought from a man that did woodworking in Germany. My mom and dad started a collection of characters to put on it. Every year adding to it. Unfortunately, moving around so much, a lot of them have gone missing :( But we still get new ones every year. We have everyone from the Smurf's to the Jetsons. Spiderman, Mickey Mouse, Barney, Lion King, Pooh and the Incredibles. Our newest one that we got for 08' was Wall-E, the adorable little robot.
We have always had a nativity set. We had one for the longest time and it was on it's last leg. So in 1999, mom and I went on the hunt for the perfect nativity set. We found it! We fell in love with it the moment we saw it! We got two sets. One was the manger with all the little accessories they might have had in there back then and some animals. The second part of the set was the figures. We love it! Then when Ray and I were visiting his mom one year in Colorado, she gave us an all white nativity set she had made. It has very special meaning to us both. We love them both, so we display both. Then we have a third one that is our tiny glass one. I'm hoping to get the Willow Tree collection nativity soon as well. I think I need a bigger house! Our tree is decorated every year with a lot of special ornaments. Most of them have a special meaning to us. From some we got in Germany when I was a child, to the bunches of them that Ray's Grandma Allstun made. Then we got some for special events in our life. As our kids got older, they started making them and added to our collection. We always have an angel on top of the tree. Unfortunately we had to retire ours this year. She had issues about staying together on top of the tree! We always had a real tree growing up. When we moved to NC, after the frist couple of years seeing the price of them here, we opted for an artificial one. I'm really missing the real ones and hoping to switch back to the real thing some time soon! Every year I love checking the mail! It's so wonderful getting things that aren't bills in the mail! Every year as I get the cards and read the newsletters, I find somewhere to display them. It reminds me of how many people love us. We always send out our annual card and newsletter with a family picture each year. I know a couple of years we missed but this year we sent around 70 of them! I think we broke a record this year! I love my house at Christmas time. It seems so cozy and inviting. I almost wish I could leave it up all year round! I hope that as the years go on, the children leave home and remember the things that were special to them. And that they can begin their own traditions as time goes on.