Growing up, I think my mom was always afraid to try anything new with us because I would declare it a "tradition" and would have a mini meltdown if we didn't do it every single year to follow. Now that I have my own little family, starting traditions of our own makes me the happiest. person. ever. I love that there are traditions that Dustin and I are bringing from our own childhoods, and then I love that we're starting new traditions too.
The first year that we were married, we woke up on Christmas Eve and made a gigantic breakfast of pancakes, bacon, sausage, and eggs. I, of course, deemed it our "Christmas Eve Morning Tradition", and we've done it every year since. It's the way we kick off Christmas Eve and Christmas. This year was the best yet, of course, with Eden's high chair pulled up to the dining room table. Yep, we actually ate at the dining room table. This is incredibly rare for us as I can think of only one other time that we actually ate a meal in our dining room instead of at the kitchen counter on our barstools. So we had a fancy Christmas Eve breakfast complete with a table cloth and a "fancy glass" for my orange juice. Guess what? It's tradition now, and all future Christmas Eve breakfasts must be eaten at the dining room table using fancy glasses.
We spent Christmas Eve at my Granny and Pops' house, which is where I have spent every single Christmas Eve since I was born I think.
Eden was bombarded with presents from everyone, and I had so much fun watching and helping her open her gifts that later when somebody asked me what I had gotten, I didn't even know. I had to think really hard to remember what I had gotten because I just didn't care, as rude as that sounds. I was just having fun watching how happy everyone was to give Eden presents. I just love seeing how much Eden is loved. My dad and his wife, my grandparents, brother, aunt, uncle, cousins... All everybody wanted to do was watch Eden. As soon as he got there, my cousin Cameron just wanted to know when he could give his gift to Eden. He got her this little trampoline:
She has some growing to do, but already she climbs onto it by herself, sits right in the middle, and starts moving her body up and down to bounce a little. Smart baby if you ask me.
My dad and his wife went to Italy earlier this year, and they got Eden a garnet (her birthstone) cross neckalce from The Vatican. I mean, come on, if you're going to have a cross necklace, I'm pretty sure The Vatican is where you should get it!
And no offense to all of the other wonderful presents that she got, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be this prayer book that my grandpa gave to her.
I teared up when I read it, and I know that this is something that Eden will treasure for the rest of her life.
Eden playing with some of her new stuff
Christmas Day started out early. Really early. I love going to Christmas church services at my Grandma's church in downtown Houston ('cause it's tradition!). From the music to the sermon, it's always completely amazing, and I look forward to going every year. This year was kind of a practice run for me... trying to see if we could all get up, have Christmas morning presents with Eden, and still manage to get ready and make it to church an hour and a half away by 9:30. We made it, but barely, sliding into our pew at around 9:28.
For this first year, Dustin and I just got Eden some clothes and books, and I put everything together into a big box so that after she opened it and didn't care about her clothes and books, she would have a big ol' box to play in.
She's wearing her Christmas pajamas that my mom bought for her - another new tradition where my mom will buy her Christmas pajamas every year for her to wear Christmas Eve night so that she'll have new, cute pajamas for Christmas morning present-opening pictures.
Eden was beautiful (but she always is) for Christmas church. The dress she wore is one that my dad brought back for her from Rome. Thanks to my dad and his wife, this year Eden had an Easter dress from Paris, a Baptismal dress from Paris and a Christmas dress from Rome. Baby Girl is in for a rude awakening when I have to start buying her special occasion outfits and they come from Gap. She also wore her new cross necklace and one of her antique baby rings that my dad gave me last Christmas.
After church she played in Jesus' manger for a while:
Everyone in the family who managed to make it to church this year took our annual picture at the front of the church:
Then we went back to my grandma's house for lunch, presents and board games.
I spy a Christmas cookie crumb on someone's face.
Late in the afternoon, Dustin, Eden and I left and drove to Hempstead to spend the evening with his parents, eat more good food and give Eden more presents. By this point, Eden knew exactly what to do when a present was put in front of her.
We got home late Christmas night, exhausted, but happy. I could not have asked for a better two days. We were able to spend time with all of our families, and I'm so thankful for everything that my precious girl got and for everything that everyone has done for her all year. To sum up: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were PERFECT. I'm looking forward to starting more traditions as she gets older, and actually having her be able to participate in the ones already in place!
Crawling into bed on Christmas night though, it hit me. The post-Christmas blues. I get them every year. For as long as I can remember, I am sad on Christmas night. (I guess that's tradition too.) I'm partly sad because it's over - you look forward to it for so long, you spend almost an entire month preparing with music, decorating, baking, etc - and then in a flash, the whole thing is over. And I'm partly sad because I start thinking about all of the people who I miss, mainly my grandpa. This year was especially hard because I was just laying in bed wishing so bad that he could know Eden. I think how special the Christmas is is directly proportional to how sad I'm going to be. This year = Eden's first Christmas = VERY SPECIAL = very sad. The post-Christmas blues followed me around for a few days. The fact that Eden is going to be turning one soon seemed to make it worse.
I understand that she's SUPPOSED to get older. I have these conversations with Dustin all the time.
Me: Are you going to cry when Eden turns one?
Dustin: Probably not.
Me: WHAT?! What's wrong with you? Well, are you going to cry when she goes off to kindergarten?
Dustin: Probably not.
Me: YOU HAVE NO HEART!
Then Dustin explains to me in a voice that sounds like he's talking to a five year old all about how she's supposed to turn one, she's supposed to go off to kindergarten, that that means she's healthy and good. I know he's right, but I'll still be sad, and I'll still cry.
And I really love her at this age. I mean, to be honest, it's way more fun than when she was a newborn and did... nothing. But I still MISS those days.
This time of year was just really making everything worse though. I had to go to Babies R Us last week to buy something for a baby shower, and just being back at Babies R Us, with the cold weather outside just took me back... It was this time last year that I was at that same Babies R Us with Dustin, with the cold weather outside, buying last minute things that we needed before Eden arrived. As I was walking around the store with Eden, looking at teeny-tiny little clothes that she is way too big for,I was just... sad.
The fact that Dustin was out of town for four days last week wasn't helping either.
I spent the time that he was gone undecorating the house and completely cleaning and organizing it. I do it every year between Christmas and New Year's. I like for everything to be clean, organized, fresh for the New Year... a new start. Closets were cleaned out, junk drawers were organized, the refrigerator was freed of expired products, Eden's new toys found homes. For some reason, this brought me out of my funk. It made me happy to have everything clean and ready for the new year. Dustin came home, and all was well again.
*****
We have a new little kitten running around here these days. We rescued her, and she wasn't meant to be a Christmas present for Eden, but now that she's here, I'm just gonna go ahead and say that we got Eden a kitten for her first Christmas because that's just so cute. And Eden LOVES this kitten. Almost to death. Seriously. I guess she is just so happy to have something her size. When Dustin came home the other night, she was picking the poor thing up by the head to try and give her to him. Literally by the head.
In that picture, Eden is laughing SO HARD while trying to lay on top of her. Sometimes, I see Eden go over to the kitten and pet her so gently, and I think to myself how absolutely sweet and precious that is.
Then Eden decides that she wants to hold the kitten, only she's not capable of doing so nicely. The poor kitten is dragged by the neck from her comfy place so that Eden can hug her.
In the beginning, I would try and save the kitten from Eden, but she keeps coming back for more. She seeks Eden out. So I guess she's happy for a friend.
*****
I thought briefly about actually going out for New Year's Eve, but opted to stay in for two reasons.
1. Just because I stayed out all night does not mean that Eden was going to be nice and let me sleep in this morning, and I actually wanted to enjoy my January 1st.
2. As Dustin said, "The three of us can start out our first full year together."
So last night we went out to dinner, and then stopped at WalMart to buy pizzas, popcorn, and board games. After Eden went to sleep, Dustin and I watched movies, played Monopoly Millionaire, ate our pizzas and popcorn and drank champagne (ok, I drank champagne, Dustin hates the stuff). At 11:45, I went and got Eden, and when the clock struck midnight we were all there together. I cannot imagine a more pefect way to have brought in the New Year.
Today was pretty wonderful as well. We spent the day out in our shop. We had a fire going, and Dustin cooked prime rib, greens and black eyed peas. I hate greens and black eyed peas, but had to eat them, it is tradition after all.
There are many reasons why I love my husband, but the fact that he is such an amazing cook is pretty high on the list. He always gives me a pretty presention too. Today, he arranged our prime rib into the shape of a heart for me.
Gotta love him. Call me untraditional (or just somebody who really, really likes food), but I would take prime rib in the shape of a heart over flowers any day.
2012 blessed me in so many ways. Last New Year's Eve, I was SO pregnant and tired, and only managed to stay up until 10:00. I keep thinking about how much my life has changed in one year. I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for me and how much my life will have changed one year from today.
Happy 2013, everybody!
You are correct. Anytime we did anything on or around a holiday, it became a tradition. We had to coninue it every year. You are all about family and all about tradition and that is a very GOOD thing!!
ReplyDeleteYa'll are blessed to have so much family around. I enjoyed reading this. Traditions are very important.
ReplyDelete