Holiday Traditions

[Chocolatl]

This year will be my first year "hosting" Christmas at home. The past seven years we've spent Christmas with my in-laws, and all of the good Christmases before that were at my grandmother's, who passed away several years ago. (The Bad Christmases are another story all together, but that's for another thread.)

It's also my first year as a mom, and although Beans will only be 4 months old at Christmas and will be more than content to bat at ornaments and stare at the shiny lights, I'm hoping to start putting down the roots of having our own family traditions that will grow with us as our daughter grows.

One tradition Kitsune and I have started is that each year, we've bought a new ornament for our tree to represent something that's happened. We have ornaments celebrating our marriage, our new house, the birth of our daughter, and even the adoption of each of our dogs. (Except I haven't had time to dig up a picture of Pepper, so for right now it looks like we are commemorating some exceptionally good looking Golden Retriever.)

Whether you're celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule, Festivus, or anything else... what traditions does your family have this time of year?