Tradition. Tradition!

Every year we love to fulfill our family traditions. They are small, but sweet and memorable - we hope - especially for the kids. One of our favorites falls on the day we decorate our family Christmas Tree. The night begins with a super fancy dinner party - prepared by me, the mama. The table is dressed to the hilt complete with goblets for our sparkling cider. We dine by candlelight, listen to Christmas music and visit with each other in a more civilized manner than usual. Burping is curbed to a minimum (2 per child). (My personal favorite part of the evening is the pre-dinner lecture by Jeremy. He lays down all the rules before we eat. 1. no elbows on the table 2. no saying rude things 3. you will eat slowly 4. try very hard not to spill or drop your glass! He is so serious when he tells the kids these things and they return his seriousness - it's all I can do to keep from giggling through the whole thing - they are all so sweet as they listen and try their best to be good dinner guests!) After dinner we adjourn to the family room and let the tree decorating commence! It is usually a flurry of tissue paper and plastic ornaments with this year being no exception. So here's how this year went down...

The table was dressed in our festive holiday theme: Red runner with candles, cranberries, twinkle lights, gold toulle, and floral picks. So lovely if I do say so myself!

We started with a (from scratch) creamy vegetable soup and homemade rolls. For the main course we had Chicken Pillows, red potatoes, gravy and a Harvest Salad. Only a few belches were heard and not one glass tipped!

After dinner the kids opened their new ornaments. Trevor got Optimus Prime and Logan got Bumble Bee. Lizzie got Minnie Mouse and Jackson, Mickey.

The kids embraced my red and white theme and loved every minute. They so enjoy pulling out all their old ornaments and see picutres of themselves when they were younger. My favorites are their Star Wars ornaments. Does anyone else have Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker on their tree? Come on. How cool is that?

Notice the pink princess ornament - I'm pretty sure that will always be her favorite. She fussed and fussed to make it hang just right. Love it!

The tree, surprisingly enough, turned out really nice and just how I wanted. It looked like peppermint striped candy! (Make sure to notice our tree topper. I made that when I was 13 or 14 years old as a craft project at church. I am so proud of that rustic looking angel every year she comes out!)

So many memories in one little tree.

We wound down the evening with some homemade cinnnamon rolls for dessert and sat back to admire our good work.

Check. Another tradition done for 2007.