Old Traditions/New Traditions

I love traditions and I love creating new traditions. Traditions provide stability and observed year in and year out become a means by which family members can build trust and security. Regardless of what else may happen, the traditions will not change. So much in our lives these days is temporary. Family traditions provide something for every person to hold on to and to rely upon. And as a military family, where things are constantly changing and often laced with uncertainty, traditions give us a foundation of familiarity in places and circumstances that are unfamiliar and sometimes disconcerting.

I shared our Thanksgiving tablecloth tradition and thought I would share a few of our Christmas traditions, both old and new.

Christmas is a great time to practice generosity! One of our older traditions involves gathering toys that don't receive much attention anymore and donating them to our local shelter. I have always let Sprout decide which toys he wants to donate and this year he was very generous, filling an entire box! (I'm sorry if you see something in this box that you may have given to Sprout...like I said, I try not to dictate what goes in the box and let him feel good about his choices to donate. ;)

Now on to new traditions... This year we started a new tradition that the kids seem to be really enjoying. We have a new advent calendar and the kids love opening the door each day to see what tiny treasure lays inside. Some days it is a gold chocolate coin, others days it may be a mini ornament or sticker (what's not to enjoy-right?)...

The twist is that this year we have a little elf who lives on the top shelf of the advent calendar. I hide him every day and before the kids can open the door to get their tiny treasure, they have to search the house, find the elf, and put him back on the shelf.

Here he is hanging from a door hinge...

And here he is sitting in a candle holder...

And here are the munchkins getting today's treasure after successfully finding the elf...

What are some of your holiday traditions?