Flannel-y Traditions

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
I know I did! I just love spending the holidays with family.....and great food too of course.
The family traditions that are both old and new are my favorite part of the holiday season. Jeremy and I starting new ones with our tiny family, as well as being able to participate with the ones that have been handed down through the generations. Some are old heart warmers, like the reading of "The Night Before Christmas" every Christmas Eve at my Grandma's house growing up. Or the saying of grace before a big Thanksgiving meal. These are ones that will be unchanged throughout the years, and that we might carry into our own families as we grow. Then there are the new ones that arise as the "kids" grow older. One in particular with the Bratz family has become a semi-joke, but more and more family members are catching on. Jeremy's cousin Sawyer started wearing flannel shirts to Thanksgiving and Christmas get-togethers, (the exact context of the joke, I don't recall.) and it has spread to more of the family. It is funny to see more and more people showing up in flannel shirts every birthday or holiday. Like I said, its kind of a running joke, but its entertaining if nothing else.
I guess it is just something to be thankful for. With so much of the world being wrapped up in the material (which lets be honest, we all do at some point) it is refreshing to be able to laugh at things like this with family.
So hold on to your traditions; old and new. They are what so often wind up shaping families. I never think of my childhood Christmas memories with out one of the uncles reading that famous story, or watching Christmas Vacation with my Mom and Dad before opening gifts at home. Driving around looking at all of the lights with my Dad every year on Christmas, to always find that Santa had come when we got home. Even some of the different foods that were at Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner every year are so closely tied to our memories. So many of these traditions will sadly die out as we become older, and start our own families. But its the ones that we carry on that will keep family that lives hours away, or maybe just gone, close and in our hearts every year.
So as the holiday season progresses, and we find ourselves stressing over what to buy, and for whom, take a second and remember the smaller things.


Yes, I do become a sap around the holidays. I'm a VERY sentimental person, and the season is just filled with good cheer, memories, tradition and hope. Therefore, the sappiness is just busting out. I can't help it.