Family Traditions

"The most vivid memories of Christmases past are not of gifts given or received, but of the spirit of love, the special warmth of worship, and the cherished little habits of the home." Lois Rand

I, like most people, love family traditions. This love of tradition was passed down to me from my mom. She was always so creative in thinking up family traditions for my brother and me to enjoy. I want to give Caroline the same love of tradition so I'm trying to follow in my mom's footsteps. One of our first traditions for the Christmas season is going to visit Santa and Mrs. Claus at McShan's florist the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
We talked Santa up big-time hoping that would help Caroline to not be so terrified of him. She didn't mind sitting in Mrs. Claus' lap but when we put her in Santa's lap, she was not thrilled (to say the least :-) Her reaction was about the same as last year's. So Matt and I jumped in to relieve the Santa torture.

Santa was so sweet and gave Caroline her first candy cane and a beanie baby teddy bear. After Santa, we moved on to take some pics in the pretty florist shop.

Yummmm, Caroline's first taste of a candy cane. I think she likes them as much as her mommy :-)

Then we were off to do one of my favorite Christmas traditions...pick out our Christmas tree. Caroline was in awe of all the trees surrounding her. She kept saying "this way mommy, this way daddy" while walking around. She wanted to look at everything. It was so fun to have her help us this year.

A couple days after picking out our tree, it was time to decorate. We all put on our "cozies" a.k.a. pajamas and got to work.

"Wow, this one is BIG!!"

The finished product (although you can't see the lights because it was light outside when I took the picture...oops :-)