Happy Friday, BASK friends! This is a two-part series on winter holiday traditions. Many people do not live near their extended families and when you have good connections with your family, it can be really painful to not be there physically to celebrate. One way to take the sadness out of feeling homesick during the holidays is to practice traditions as it can make us feel closer to home and the ones we love and miss.
Favorite traditions in our family include selecting and then decorating the Christmas tree while listening to some of our favorite Christmas music (Nat King Cole, Karen Carpenter, and so many others), making and eating the best Christmas cookies ever with recipes passed down from my maternal grandmother, giving tins brimming with those cookies to our friends and community members, listening to a small Salvation Army band come down our lonely street and play the most beautiful music that lulled us out of our front doors as we watched them make footprints on the fresh snow on the street, going to Christmas Eve mass, opening our presents that night after our parents took us for a drive in the neighborhood to see the pretty holiday lights and then meeting up with my mom and sister who said they were so tired and took a nap at the house while Santa spread the magic, and so many more.
As we look ahead to this holiday season, I look forward to and am grateful for the traditions passed on to me and to the ones that our family has started. We will not be home with any of our extended families this Christmas season and while it is hard, we are going to focus on our traditions that we love (ones passed down and the news ones that we have made.) Since moving to Colorado, we have made it a tradition to go up to Flagstaff and see the star. We join others making the treacherous and sometimes slippery hike up the steep mountain and then find a special spot to take in the star and the city lights, enjoy our hot cocoa, and cross our fingers that we can all make it down safely.
I can't wait to cuddle up with my family and watch our favorite Christmas movies, drink hot cocoa (notice a theme?), and eat popcorn tonight and start baking and feasting on our cookies this weekend.
What traditions do you love that tie you to your family? What are some of your new traditions that you look forward to having throughout the years? As always, thank you for taking your time today.
With a grateful heart,
Kerry
P.S. Stay tuned for the next part about coping with the holidays during loss.
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