Traditions

The holiday season has always been a special time for me, and I've kept the family traditions I grew up with warmly in my heart. Now that I'm married, though, and have another family to create new holiday memories with, I have come to realize it's time for Paul and I to build traditions of our own. This feels a little scary. The past three years we've traveled the countryside for the major holidays, squeezing our family traditions in their traditional places into a whirlwind three-day, several-hundred mile, driving extravaganza of an affair, and while we loved spending time with family and reliving some of the memories we're both so fond of, the sheer exhaustion of all that upheaval and travel added a sour note to the whole thing.

This year we're doing something completely different - we're hosting both of our families at our home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is a little scary in its own right; while we've happily hosted summertime barbeques for the whole bunch, never before have we negotiated a sit-down meal, indoors no less, for 16. For Thankgiving we're doing a mostly-potluck affair, with yours truly providing the turkey, potatoes and gravy, and stuffing, and the other important elements traveling from various points yonder. (Our oven is WAY too tiny to share!)

Christmas has yet to be planned, but is full of exciting possibilities. I look forward to digging through old magazine pages I've ripped out, fanning through cookbooks, and deciding how to decorate.

Everything about this holiday season is new for us...first holidays in our new home, first time decorating a completely different style house and yard than before, first time having our families together to forge new holiday memories together as a group, my first ever attempt at cooking a turkey (egads!), our first travel-less holiday season as a couple.

I can't wait!