Creating Traditions

So every year for the past three years Jason and I have revisited our stance on the holidays. It's become a bit foggier now that we have kids how we'll celebrate holidays and has really caused us to think about our beliefs and how they intersect or don't with cultural norms. Neither one of us is particularly religious in the traditional sense. Parenthood challenges you in many ways, one of which is to question yourself, your beliefs constantly. We both recognize and honor our roots and connection to nature and the earth, and we both grew up celebrating Christmas. Without much information from us Addy already figured out the whole Santa gig and loves Christmas decorations. She admires lights and decorated trees every where we go. She said, weeks before we really discussed it, "All I want for Christmas is a tree." And so we began our conversation about what kind of traditions we wanted to start with our family beginning with going to a local tree farm and cutting down our very own White Pine. We kind of felt like the Griswalds, only in that all the white pines at this farm were huge. Apparently these are not the most popular tree. We carted it home and we decorated it together listening to holiday tunes, Addy donning a Santa hat. To us the tree is a symbol of peace, nature, family tradition and togetherness. The ornaments adorning it represent stories from our lives of special people and events, people and moments for which to be thankful, and to remember how our lives are in enriched in so many ways by most amazing family and friends. Every morning Addy asks for the lights to be turned on. Not so great for our carbon footprint, but surely sweet how much she adores the energy and spirit of light at this dark time of year.

We also wanted to do something intentional for the solstice this year and I've been searching for a meaningful way to honor my mom as a family, something we could do together, a tradition. We've been reading holiday and wintery type books from our special basket (another tradition we've started). One is called The Night Tree and it's about a family that goes out into the woods at night on Christmas Eve to decorate a tree with fruits and nuts for the animals.

And so we strung cranberries and popcorn and made pine cone bird feeders and decorated the tree that stands by mom's stone at the cemetery. It was exactly what I had wanted and really needed. The morning we were stringing the cranberries and popcorn, we were again listening to some holiday tunes on the radio (ok I've got the Christmas bug, I admit it) and our dear friend Noah Kaminsky, famously known as Neil Diamond, came on. Mom loved Neil Diamond, something we made fun of her for but also enjoyed. I have fond memories of singing and dancing to "Sweet Caroline." It was perfect and brought tears to my eyes for the second time that morning. Addy asked, "Are you ok mama"

"I'm sad, Addy."

"Why?"

"I miss my mama."

"It's ok mama, you'll see her again someday."