Todays Fun Monday is hosted by Debrah at The Humble Housewife her challenge for this week is this
"I want to hear about or see a holiday tradition, recipe or event. It can be any holiday you like or that is special to your family. With Thanksgiving and the Winter holidays coming up, those would be especially apt, but anything that is special for your family is fine. If you have pictures - it's a bonus! Whether it's your Mom's famous stuffing recipe, going caroling on Christmas Eve, Diwali dances, or even the inevitability of Great Aunt Polly having one too many brandies and knocking over the Christmas tree - I want to hear about it!!!"
"I want to hear about or see a holiday tradition, recipe or event. It can be any holiday you like or that is special to your family. With Thanksgiving and the Winter holidays coming up, those would be especially apt, but anything that is special for your family is fine. If you have pictures - it's a bonus! Whether it's your Mom's famous stuffing recipe, going caroling on Christmas Eve, Diwali dances, or even the inevitability of Great Aunt Polly having one too many brandies and knocking over the Christmas tree - I want to hear about it!!!"
Honestly this challenge is a little bittersweet for me. Since we have just moved from our home in Oregon where all of our family lives we will have to make some new family traditions since most of ours involved them. It makes me a little sad to think about this Christmas but I know we will make our own new traditions that we will all love.
The tradition I am going to tell you about today is one from when we lived in Oregon and it also happens to be one we will not be able to do here in Ketchikan but it was one of my favorite things to do there and I decided to share it with you.
What is it? Well it was our annual tree choosing tradition. We couldn't go to a tree lot and pay the high prices for trees that were already cut and dying instead we went to tree farms. Oregon has tons of these and was a favorite thing for our family and our kids to go and find the "perfect" tree. Of course the perfect tree had to be of my choosing and I can be a bit difficult to please when it comes to my tree. Kelly would say "a bit" was an understatement! I only like certain trees and they have to be tall, wide and full. It can take me forever to choose the right one! I have to look at that tree everyday though until new years it has to look perfect!
Last year Izzak was big enough to help cut the tree and was very excited about that.
+of+DSCF0057.JPG)
We also went with my sister, her husband and their youngest daughter.
I think my pickyness paid off. It was a good tree. It wasn't perfect and I don't ever expect the ornaments to look perfect as that is something we have always let the kids put up. I put on the lights and it is up to the kids to decorate. They have so much fun with it and so do I just watching them!
We don't have Christmas tree farms here in Ketchikan though so we will make some new traditions but I'm sure that we will find ways to make them just as meaningful as the old ones.
27 people had something to say:
Great post,Terri!Traditions are very important for our kids.We have here traditions,already since my childhood,too especially around christmas every year and Christmas Eve.So we eat on christmas eve the same meal...I hope my kids want do the same traditions when they are adults.
I know this is a fun tradition for you all but me being the greenie that I am find it sad that you all cut down trees every year just to throw them away later.
Wouldn't it be a nicer tradition to say purchase one in a pot and then plant it after xmas? Just a thought!
We have a re-usable one, I know, not as nice as real but it does the job and I feel better about it.
Hey, if you want my opinion....family traditions that are started NEW with your OWN immediate family are VERY important.
I think going out and cutting down your own tree is super exciting!!!
This is so cool. Beautiful tree pics. :D
as kids we did go get a tree a few times. i'd forgotten about that. thanks for the reminder. and we are away from our family really for the first time too, i dont know if we'll go back or not. i guess it depends on the weather and how my hubby feels, i dont drive well in snow... so we'll see. i feel for you!
That is a big tradition that I forgot to include in my post but will just write about tomorrow. I will think of you when we go this year. :)
I have "perfect tree" obsession - but since mine is plastic, I have to obsess abou the ornaments. Your tree is BEAUTIFUL!
I love the shape of your tree, so it looks perfect to me. Christmas trees are specifically grown for the occasion so I don't think it's quite the same green issues. I have to say I now have an artificial tree which we have used for 3 years now; but that was more to with economy in preparation for retirement!
It's funny, here the ones on the farm are more expensive than the pre-cut ones!
Lisa
That is a perfectly shaped tree! We always cut down trees in a pasture when we were children with my dad. They were never perfect!
Lovely tree, good pictures. It's hard to make new traditions, but it's also sort of exciting.
You'll certainly have fun coming up with new holiday traditions on your beautiful new island home!
What a wonderful tradition you used to have. I'm sure you'll come up with some great new traditions that the kids will look back on fondly as they grow up.
Can you get a permit to go cut one? Just curious.
that tree is unreal! it is perfect!!!
My husband and I've been doing this with the kids now for the past 4 years. It is so much fun...col, but fun.
It would seem to me that you could go out in your backyard and find a tree there in Alaska! Maybe they aren't quite right, though.
Oh shucks, my comment disappeared. I like Karisma's idea, but potted Christmas trees may be expensive. Maybe you could substitute another kind of potted plant for a Christmas tree...like a Ponderosa Pine. Or maybe you might find a tree outside your home to decorate with strands of popped corn and cranberries.
I am just like you when it comes to picking out just the right tree! Exactly!
I hope you found some new traditions through the FM posts today. Either way I am sure you will make new ones!
I do like Karisma's idea also. How very cool, especially if you have space to do it. We don't get a tree, wouldn't have room in the house if we did. You will find new traditions where you are, and Kelly's brother is there with you guys, and hopefully the nieces will be there too.
I think it may just be me, but I am missing the right had side of all your posts!
I hope this Christmas with the 6 of you is one of the best. Imagine how many people will never have such a white Christmas.
oh, you brougtht back memories with this post! when i lived in duluth i used to out and cut a tree every winter. you could get a permit to cut from a state forest, and so one winter i hiked with my boyfriend into the forest and found the absolute perfect tree.....
cut it, hauled it out through the woods.....and then saw a TAG on it. we had accidentally crossed the boundary of the forest into a chrismtas tree farm, and basically stole a tree. yikes.
oh, you brougtht back memories with this post! when i lived in duluth i used to out and cut a tree every winter. you could get a permit to cut from a state forest, and so one winter i hiked with my boyfriend into the forest and found the absolute perfect tree.....
cut it, hauled it out through the woods.....and then saw a TAG on it. we had accidentally crossed the boundary of the forest into a chrismtas tree farm, and basically stole a tree. yikes.
My husband and I never came home on the holidays when we were first married, we preferred visiting during the summer, so we forged our own path. You'll enjoy doing the same. Besides up there you should be able to walk out in the woods and find that perfect free tree, right?
While understandably, this WILL be a bittersweet holiday season for you, how exciting to begin your own traditions with just your little family; you can bring in things you've always done, and maybe (especially after reading all the fun Mondays) begin some new ones.
We've never cut our own tree, but choosing just the "right" one has always been part of our tradition. We leave it up for about a month, so it's always worth it :).
I'm sure you will have a wonderful Christmas, and maybe when you see your family next you could have another Christmas with them too.
We do that with family we don't actually see on the day. It's fab. :D
I'm sure you'll make some wonderful new traditions this year :)
enjoy creating some new traditions in your new location!
Post a Comment