Traditions

November also begins the season of cultivating family traditions. Growing up, we drove about an hour from Sunnyvale, California to the Santa Cruz mountains in order to pick out and cut down the perfect Christmas tree. We often went with other families, and we always had donuts and hot chocolate. I remember being cold in the 60 degree weather (a bit laughable now) and being so thankful my dad knew how to make really yummy hot chocolate (it's all about the chocolate to marshmallow ratio). We did this every year on the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving.

With my little family I have tried to carry on this tradition, but it looks a little different. We don't drive to the mountains and we don't even cut down our tree. (We tried this year and the trees were so dry and dead we left!) We drive to a local farm where we love the people and they love our girls. We walk up and down the few aisles of trees and pick out our favorite. One of the sons of the farmer trims off branches from the bottom, wraps it up nicely, and ties it to the top of our car. It takes less than 20 minutes. I'm okay with that, though, because we do not live in California. It's cold here in PA in November! I love this little tradition.

Another tradition we did every year growing up was selecting a new Christmas ornament. My mom had the best selection and I almost always tried to select a snowman. My girls get to choose one every year but one year they choose from a selection of snowflakes and the next year they choose a snowman. It's all part of my master plan to have a decent looking tree while still allowing them some freedom - teeny, tiny bit.

This year we went to Koziar's Christmas Village for the first time on a recommendation from friends. The best part was meeting up with our dear friends the Baylesses. Zoey loved it and hopes it will become a yearly tradition while the adults thought it was a little far, a little lot cold, and hope maybe the girls will forget about it next year. Kaia's face in the snowman picture pretty much sums up her thoughts on the evening.

Love this season, love our friends, and love my family.