Traditions

One of my favorite traditions of Christmas is decorating, especially the outside of the house. I have such fond memories of being a little girl watching my mom and dad take out all of the christmas boxes filled with Christmas lights, big red bow, plastic snowman, santa and reindeer. My Dad had a passion for Christmas decorating and he was a pro when it came to the outside of the house. One year he sawed a huge penguin out of plywood, painted it and wrote, "Merry Christmas! From: The Coco's" we definitely had the most festive holiday house in the neighborhood that year! That decorating bug trickled down to me, since my parents divorced I stepped into my dad's shoes and took over the outside decorations. When I was in high school, I was determined to get lights on the BIG pine tree in front of our townhouse so I summoned Jen to hold the ladder. As we strung the lights, we danced and sang to Mariah Carey's Christmas CD. I think one of my favorite memories was when we stepped back from that tree and saw that it actually looked good and we did it all by ourselves.

Fast forward five years and enter Paul, a man who doesn't remember if his family put up Christmas lights. My mission since we met has been to increase his enthusiasm and excitement about the holiday season. Over the years I've instituted annual Christmas parties, tree trimming nights, holiday cookie baking, and yes oh yes, decorating the outside of our house. Over the last 9 years I've seen him change...he's excited about getting out the boxes of decorations and trimming the tree. He likes to take out each ornament and reminisce about where we were and what stage of life we were in when we got it. He's also in charge of putting on the tree topper!



This year has been one of my favorites by far! Chicago has gotten a considerable amount of snow and we got it right after Thanksgiving so it looked like Christmas lights weren't going to happen because our bushes were covered with snow and it's been really cold outside (like 15 degrees)! So I succumbed to the idea that we would just decorate the inside of the house. Until last night! It rained all day yesterday and melted most of the snow on the bushes so after we put the kids to bed we went outside and started putting up Christmas lights. As we were finishing up it started snowing and the wind picked up so I figured we were done but Paul was determined to get the big tree done. Yes, Paul was! When he said he wanted to do the big tree I knew the Christmas mission I started 10 years ago had been a success! Just this weekend we trimmed the tree, Paul and Reece made a snowman and we put Christmas lights up.

Something about this year is different, I feel more like an adult because for the first time we are creating our own traditions to carry on with our own little family and nothing makes me happier!