My Favorite Holiday Tradition

Every year, since our first Christmas together, Bryon and I have gone to the craft store and bought those plain white ceramic ornaments and painted them together, wrote our names on the back and dated them. It's my favorite tradition. It forces us to slow down during the holidays, if only for an evening, or an afternoon and just spend time together chatting and doing something that's lets face it, is playing. I love it. They always come out terrible in some way, and it always makes us laugh and we have such fun pulling them back out every year and remembering them. I like to write the city we were in on the back too now, because as it is now, we are starting to move too much to remember every year. And it's only going to get worse...in a good way ! The tradition only got better with Collin. His ornaments are such treasures. 

Bryon's ornament this year was perhaps the best one we've ever seen. For some reason, he painted his hugging "people" brown (what the frick are they anyway? snowmen?). He admitted to making an "odd" choice but he couldn't really go back once that first paint stroke was made so the jokes kept rolling. We eventually decided to tactfully call them "gingerbread" snowmen, instead of accusing Bryon of being a closet racist that painted his ornament in makeshift blackface/brown-face. I thought they looked like perhaps little Ethiopian children or something, like it was an ad for an orphanage. It got pretty politically incorrect.

On the other hand, isn't this a charming image here? I love this tradition. It warms my heart. And you know what's better? My sweet husband knowing how special it is to me, went out for me this year to get them because he knew I wouldn't have time to get them before Christmas and he didn't want me to stress out about missing out on the tradition. What a man. I never for a minute forget what I have in him. I didn't even have to ask. It was just done.

I hope Collin enjoys this tradition as much as I do. Maybe it will be something he takes out of here to his kids. Do you ever wonder what traditions will make it out of your house and what things they'll roll their eyes at and say, "thank god I don't have to do that anymore!"