Holiday Traditions

I'm not usually one for getting ready for Christmas before Thanksgiving. I'm all for enjoying one holiday before preparing for the next. But the calendar this year is a busy one, and I found myself in the Christmas spirit a little earlier than usual!

(Don't you love our stockings? They were a shower gift from my mom. The matching tree skirt has our name on it, too. I think they are super cool.)

This week, Jay and I will celebrating our first holiday (other than the one we were married on) as a married couple. We've been fortunate in the past to have agreed to go our separate ways with each of our families and that's been okay with both of us. This Thanksgiving has been the first time we've had to decide what to do and where to go. I have to admit, it's kind of stressful. We'll do Thanksgiving with my parents on Thursday, and his family on Saturday. Double turkey for us - yay!

Other than doing our best to maintain old traditions, we've decided to start creating a few new ones of our own. One of my favorites so far, includes our Christmas tree. The past couple of years we have each picked out a new ornament to add to the tree. It started more out of necessity than sentiment, but has developed into a meaningful part of our tree decorating. I decided we'll add the date somewhere on the ornament so in future years we can remember our choices.

This year, I chose this fish:
He reminded me of the awesomely gorgeous fish we saw snorkeling in Aruba. Snorkeling has by far been my favorite thing I've done this year. (Other than getting married - hee hee...)

And Jay picked out this John Deere tractor:
His reason had something to do with the fact that he now works for John Deere and our lives would have been different if he didn't. He said I wouldn't have married him if he still worked at Target. He liked the irony that he bought a John Deere ornament at Target.

So a night of many blessings at our household for all the little elves and Santa's little helper dogs. We had some good food, good family time, and continued some good traditions.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Gobble, gobble!

(Seems odd to say in a Christmas themed blog, but that's my own fault for decorating too early.)