Accidental Traditions

Continuing the thought of holiday traditions, it's been my experience that.......
sometimes they are created by accident.

A couple of years ago, we were home for the holidays. Now, mind you, we are always physically "home" for the "actual" holiday -- but sometimes that means we fly in just a few days before, and we are bustin' our hump to make it all happen.  

Sometimes it's a rush and a blur.

But this particular year, 

we were here long enough to actually enjoy the preparation........

So we had the kids and Gbabes over for turkey soup or turkey leftovers (or whatever was on the menu that night), and we popped our tree up just prior, so the little ones @ 3, 6 & 7 years old could help decorate Papa & Noni's tree.

It was wonderful. Crazy and lumpy and clumpy, 

with a decoration limit of just 2 feet high.  

Completely delightful.

Last year, we did not have the same time luxury, 

and so we simply skipped it.  Little did we know ---- the Babes considered it a tradition, after just that once -- 
oh my goodness!

Right down to little SJ worrying, 

"But how will Papa & Noni be able to have Christmas 

if we don't decorate their tree for them"?????

Holy schmolly.  Who knew??  Not me.  Let's talk guilt trip for a moment.

So we just finished a big evening of Southwest Turkey Soup (recipe on the blog) and the new (or continuing, depending on your point of view) "tradition" of decorating Papa & Noni's tree, which I will continue until the GBabes go off to college somewhere.  Or get married.  Or both.  I'm committed for the long haul on this one. I will haunt them. 

And it was wonderful.  They're older (and taller) now, so it's a little less lumpy and clumpy, and the deco height limit has doubled.  

They actually got a pretty good start on it.  

We had a delightful evening, and we also greeted and named the new yard reindeer "Comet".

Sometimes life is just so so so good.  

And such are family traditions.  They are the things we remember and look back upon from our childhood, the things we knew we could count on year after year as kids; which becomes the things we look forward to with our own families, the things that are rock solid, those things that we know will be repeated this year and next year and the next year and all the years after that. Those traditions that our kids embrace, then marry and the hybrids of those two families' traditions become their own, and they pass them to their children and their families.

And so on and so forth.    

These are the things that become a part of the fabric of our family, be it that we repeat them "as-is no matter what", or be it that we modify them as need be to accommodate loving spouses and other family additions.

Or.  Be it that they are even sometimes 

created by accident........