Traditions.

I don't know if it's the time of year or the being married thing, but I'm really into traditions lately. From the time we moved in together, we've always tried to do things "our" way. We try to figure out the best we can the best way to handle ourselves, together, in our life. We've tried really hard to figure out what does and doesn't work for us and really pay attention to those things. Like the way we figure out household chores - while our "system" might not work for everyone - it took a few years, but we finally figured out what works for both of us. Same with the way we figure out when is together time, when is us with friends time, when is our guy/girl time with friends and when it's time to just be alone. And the way we argue - God knows we didn't have that one right the first time we dated - but we've figured out a way now that really works well for us now - a way to argue that doesn't leave us angry or pissed off - a way that we can really feel like we both got our points across, not meanly, awewend both find a resolution - or more often then not, find a way to be okay with the fact that for most things there is no resolution (we DID NOT have that figured out the first time - we would argue until we found a resolution - problem is a solution is rare). So the longer we are together the more we find "our way."
This "Holiday Season" though I think has been particularly specweial with traditions because it's our first "married" Christmas. Everyone used to tell me that things change when you get married and I thought they were crazy because we'd been together for so long, but it really does change the way you look at the other person. So this year, we've been experiementing with different traditions. A few:
1. The Christmas Tree. This one is a no-brainer. This is our third year with a "live" tree (the first year we lived together we had a fake tree), and our second year getting the tree from Ted Drewes (the famous custard place). Last year we went out in the "Ice Storm of the Century" and got the tree because we figured we'd be stuck inside, might as well decorate the tree -problem was the tree was literally frozen with ice and by the time we got it de-thawed our power was out - so you can't put up Christmas lights with no power (can't checkwe the strands of lights). But it ended up being a great tree - when we got our power back days later. This year we went Thanksgiving weekend (our first Thanksgiving here) and got our tree - not being biased or anything, but I think it's the prettiest tree I've ever had (in Florida there are just the prickly pine trees - here we got a really soft type tree - no clue what it's called).
2. The Christmas Tree Ornament. Some of the best traditions are "borrowed" (read: stollen). Cody's sister and her family take a cut from the bottom of each of their trees, put the year on it and hang it as an ornament - great idea, right? So we've been doing that the past few years but the ornaments have only sat in plastic bags with the years on them, so this year I got the drill out, drilled holes in each one, wrote the year and any significant events on it and then painted it (three times) with polyurithane (yes, I know that's spelled wrong). LOVELY! So I finally got around to finishing that "tradition."
3. Christmas ornaments. We always make a big deal out of decorating the tree. I even "let" Cody help with the lights this year - usually I'm so picky about lights I "have" to do them but this year we did it together so that was fun. :) Then I unwrap the ornaments and he puts them up while we go through them. One of our coolest ones is an ornament I got engraved at Wal-Mart that says "Missy and Cody 1997" - that was our second Christmas. :)
4. CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS. So, we both have Christmas stockings at our parents' houses - I even have one at Cody's and he has one at mine - but we really didn't have any stockings here. So we looked around and couldn't find any that "spoke" to us - plus the ones at both families' houses were hand made. So we designed our own. Cody actually designed them and picked the colours, then I took him to the fabric store (read: dragged him kicking and screaming). He looked through all the fabric (he really did) and picked a type he really liked - seriously, I didn't say one thing about his choice - I totally let him pick. I loved the fabric he picked - a very soft and stretchy suede type material, but I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to sew with it. While I can sew some, I'm not a master seamstress (my aunt TOTALLY is), so I was worried but he really liked it. So then I used the same pattern (from the late 70s) that my mom used when she made mine and then my brother's stockings. So it has a little bit of history there too. And I finally finished them tonight! I'm going to try to post pictures if Cody ever gets done with his final and gets off my laptop. :)

When I was thinking about this post, I swear I had a good dozen traditions we've started as our "own" but now I can't think of them. But we're really finding our way in creating our own little thing up here in Cold Corn Country - like we now get a pomegranate a week, cut it up and munch on the seeds all week (yeah, they get yucky at some point so we usually eat it fast). And hummus (there's a whole post to come about this) - Cody's decided that he loves it so we have a "tradition" of coming home and snacking on hummus and pita bread. All sorts of fun little things. :) Can't wait to see family though in a few weeks - no matter how many traditions you have, you can't forget where you came from! :)