traditions

Traditions are important in every family. When you get married, as a couple you start creating this backdrop of what you want your life to look like. The two of you decide what from your own experiences you want to hold onto and preserve and what you are willing to let go. As the years march on, your traditions often grow and change. For us, after we had children it became important to us to be in our own home for Christmas. How this looks each year has been different. When we lived in Indianapolis, it meant that we traveled before or after, but Christmas morning we woke up in our own beds. Now, living half a world away from our families maintaining this tradition is easier, but it still looks a bit different. Since moving to China, we often invite others to spend Christmas afternoon with us. Our children are still in their pajamas, but our home is open. So this is a twist on a tradition that we started in the States. Each Christmas morning, I am never really sure who might drop by. If you ever find yourself in Suzhou (or whatever city we live in), know that I will have made several kinds of soup, we will be playing all kinds of games, and you are always welcome to join us.

As we are approaching our 5th Christmas here in China, I have been thinking about how living here has changed our traditions. And also how it has reinforced others. When we lived in Indy, we would always buy a real tree and we had so many special things that accompanied that. And while there are times when I miss the smell of a real tree, I am so thankful for our IKEA tree. So there is a tradition that we have let go and honestly don't miss.

2008 -- setting up our first fake tree.

But one of my favorite traditions is our children's ornaments. Before Becca was born, I wanted to buy her an ornament each year for her to have on our tree that was especially hers. But I was not alone in this idea. Each of the grandparents also wanted to get ornaments for the children each year. I quickly realized that if we were adding 3 new ornaments each year per child, our tree was going to be quickly overrun! So this is one where I happily bowed out and let the grandparents have their fun. But I still get to be part it because every year as we pull out the decorations, each of the children are practically giddy to open their ornament box. There are so many memories tucked away in these boxes. As they unwrap them, there are cries of: "Do you remember....?" and "I got this one when....". We debated about moving our Christmas stuff all the way here. But I am so glad that we did. Because no matter where we are, for our children these boxes have so many special memories of Christmas. It is not the tree that matters so much, but all the memories that we stash on it.

Josh opening his new ornament this year. 

For me personally, in order for it to feel like Christmas, I need to bake. I will end up baking several times during the month. But not just any baking, I need to bake/make several specific kinds of cookies: sugar cookies (no icing, we are purists here), candy cane cookies, thumbprints, buckeyes, and then I usually experiment with a new kind each year. Thankfully, I am not alone in the kitchen. Josh is my most consistent helper. In the past, I have done a lot of the baking while they were at school. But this year, I am looking forward to having all of my little helpers in the kitchen with me. This is our last week of school and then we are taking the next three weeks off. We will still do a little work, but most of it will be fun stuff that doesn't even really feel like working. I have promised B that we will not open the math book for that entire time. We might do a little writing and I plan to learn more about Swan Lake before we attend the ballet. I also have a few craft projects that we might attempt.

2008 -- making buckeyes

J started the dough for the sugar cookies

And Becca joined in to help cut them out.

What about you? What traditions are important to your family? If you packed your family and moved to another state or even further away, what traditions would you be certain to keep?