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kendrafitz
12-05-2013, 04:34 PM
We are on our way to Nantucket, MA for our annual holiday family trip. It is Nantucket's Stroll weekend and it is a big holiday celebration on the island.

We go with Jef's mom, sister and her family. She has twin boys my sons age as well as an older daughter. Since they live in CT and we are in NJ we don't get to spend a lot of time together. It's great for the kids especially, four days of hanging out together! Jef also has a cousin who resides in Nantucket so it's nice to spend time with him. :)

So I started wondering if anyone else has special holiday traditions? It is such a great time of the year!!

Debra
12-05-2013, 06:20 PM
We don't really have any. We get to see my daughter and her fiance usually right after Christmas and that's about it. No real traditions.

Honesty
12-05-2013, 06:33 PM
No, we don't have any traditions other than spending Christmas together as a family here at home.

Mayden
12-05-2013, 07:43 PM
Mine and Andrew's first xmas alone this year, so will be hopefully starting some traditions then!

Growing up we had a few. Mainly 'present' related. We always got to open a small one on xmas eve. And also had a HUGE one on the kitchen table waiting for us last :)

We'd take it in turns to put the angel on top of the tree each year. And my dad had a little santa bell that he got from his dad that he always hung on the tree. :)

kendrafitz
12-08-2013, 12:51 AM
Here are a couple of photos of me & my babies (who are not so little anymore) at Xmas Stroll this year.

1512 1516

Turquoise
12-08-2013, 07:19 AM
Kendra, love the photos of your kids and you! Looks like ya'll were having lots of fun and it sounds like a really nice tradition you have and making it into a vacation time as well. :)

We don't go anywhere and have no traditions anymore. Since my son & daughter-n-law live so far away we don't get to spend holidays with them. They spend the holidays with her parents and sister who live up in Alaska close to them.

When I was small we had the tradition of going out on the ranch my Dad worked on and cutting down a native cedar tree for the Christmas tree. We don't have native pines, spruce or firs down here in my part of Texas, so the native cedars were the next best thing. If Christmas was going to be at my Grandparents house we would look for a really tall & big tree. She had 9ft ceilings and a large house to put it in. We would all help in decorating it. We always had the meal and opened gifts on Christmas Eve. Since my Grandparents were from Czechoslovakia they didn't celebrate Santa coming on Christmas Eve and bringing gifts to us kids and we knew there was no real Santa. That all changed when my Dad died when I was 12 and we had very little in way of traditions from then on.

With my son I did hang the stockings (yes, one for my human kid & the others were for the critters) and filled them with his Santa stuff. I would write him a note from Santa and Rudolph had to put his hoof prints on the note as well. He cherished the notes more than the trinkets in the stockings. Santa forgot to come one year cause Mom was super tired & forgot to get up in the middle of the night. Jory woke me up early the next morning crying his eyes out telling me Santa forgot him. Being the quick thinker I can be sometimes, I told him Santa had a few problems with his sleigh and couldn't get to all the kids that night. He left word that he would come back to the ones he knew would understand the next night. Boy was my son trusting and accepted the big lie I'd just told! Jory was 15 before he let me quit putting things in his stocking cause he enjoyed it so much. I asked him one day if he truly still believed & he said, "No, I just love getting that something extra waiting for me in the morning." How could I resist playing Santa to a teenager with a kid like that!" :th_hug8:

kendrafitz
12-08-2013, 07:54 PM
Thanks De'Andrea. We had fun, but are now making the long trek back to NJ. From what I am hearing we will be driving into a pretty good snowstorm soon. I am guessing it was the one from your area. Were you affected at all?

The tradition you had when you were young sounds wonderful. Even more wonderful is the one you had with your son. The fact that he cherished his notes says it all!! :). Jory sounds like a wonderful guy. You must miss him very much. I remember he visited recently, it must have been awesome! The pics look like a great time was had by all.

Turquoise
12-10-2013, 08:00 AM
We had an ice storm last Thur night and into Fri morning, but it was only about a quarter of an inch thick. Nothing like the storms ya'll are having. It was plenty of slippery ice to make us take 2 hrs to drive 50 miles coming home from work Fri morning. We made it fine as long as we went about 20 mph. :) We thawed out as far as the roads and traveling Sun. It got in the 40s and we were able to get out to stock up on supplies for us & the critters. It was cold yesterday, but almost no precipitation. They expect it to get warmer for a couple of days and them we are back in the teens for temps, but no moisture this time. I hope we stay dry as we go back to work tonight and won't be off again til Sat morning.

Hope you and your family are safe and warm Kendra during all this awful weather everyone is having. Hope everyone else here is safe and sound and not having to drive:th_hug8: in horrible conditions.

kendrafitz
12-10-2013, 10:51 PM
We made it home safely, thanks!! We woke up today to crazy snow so I kept the kids home. All the towns surrounding us closed, so I figured better safe than sorry. :)

Hope you stay dry and warm!