A few days ago, we were told to prepare for at least 8 inches of snow. Then the weather people changed it to 3-5 inches. That’s okay, the kids were still excited and got the sleds all ready.
This morning, we woke to … rain, sleet, and ice. Needless to say, the disappointment pouring off our youngest child was palpable.
Part of me wanted to say, “Well, that pretty much fits 2020.” But as I sit here enjoying the warm glow of the Christmas lights, gazing out the window at the beauty of the ice covered trees, I say to myself, “Yep, it’s 2020.”
What’s the difference, you ask?
With all the disappointments, frustrations, and sometimes downright hatred we’ve faced since March, I’ve worked hard to find bright, shining moments for our children. Today was no exception. We talked about how the ice on the trees is prettier than looking at plain old rain. One kid decided to see if the back deck would act as a skating rink (spoiler: it kind of did, and the dog thought it was quite entertaining.) Now they are busy discussing which favorite cookie recipe fits the weather of the day.
So that’s why I say, “Yep, 2020.” We can still find beautiful smiles and free laughter if we search hard enough … and looking for those brings so much more joy than pouting about the wrong weather.
What are your shining moments for 2020?
One of my most favorite things as a parent has been sharing generations of my family’s Christmas traditions with my children while adding in new ones from the five of us. However, when I asked my kids which ones they loved the most, I was truly surprised.
You see, all of their top choices were either free or very inexpensive … truly Christmas magic. Here is our list of 12 Favorite Christmas Traditions:
1. Pajamas on Christmas Eve: We haven’t always done this, but we’ve been doing it long enough that the kids can’t remember exactly when we started. Yes, you’ll have to spend a little bit of money, but here is my tip – you don’t buy actual Christmas pajamas. Instead, I buy ones that represent something my children love (Star Wars, princesses, theater, etc), which means I can buy them here and there in the months leading up to December, utilizing sales and coupons. 2 out of 3 of our kids said this is their most favorite tradition.
2. Sitting together to eat the Christmas Day meal: Okay, this one came from our youngest child and kicked in a bit of mom guilt. It made me realize how hectic our lives have become and that all five of us rarely sit down to eat together. Of course, she is also my chef and loves how we use the fancy china and silver for our Christmas meal. This one costs you nothing as it is simply spending time together, even if you are eating PBJ.
3. Watching Rudolph (and other Christmas movies): This one is another freebie – well, as long as you have TV and electricity, which should never be taken for granted. Our eldest loves Rudolph the most, and I learned a long time ago to purchase it on DVD in case we missed its air time. Of course, now we have it on DVR for the same reason. If those aren’t options for you, your local library will usually have some options to check out, or try your best to catch it on prime time.
4. Advent calendar: I didn’t have one of these growing up, but all three of my kids absolutely love it. My mother-in-law gave us one when we only had two children. It hangs on the wall, and has the cute little padded ornaments that go on it. The kids take turns every year, and we have to have a schedule so there is no arguing about who hangs Santa on Christmas Eve. This is one of those traditions where you can choose to buy a calendar or get inventive and make your own! Either way, it will be a fun memory for your family.
5. Making snowflakes: Our middle child reminded me the other day this doesn’t have to cost a dime, as he was making a snowflake out of a fast food napkin. For this one, you can spend as much or as little as you like. The goal isn’t perfection; it is the joy in doing something together.
6. Baking cookies: Once again, this one doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive. Do what fits your budget. We invite my best friend and her son (whom we consider aunt and cousin) over to make cookies every year. No cookie cutters, no problem! Roll into balls or use a butter knife to make your own shapes. Even the teens still get into this one. The cookies are far from perfect, but the children have a blast, and Santa has never lodged a complaint. Here is my biggest tip for you: if you do sugar cookies from a mix, add a tablespoon of vanilla – they will taste like homemade.
7. White Elephant: Another one I didn’t do growing up, but my older children loved participating at youth group. We had a $5 limit, which makes this easy, affordable, and leads to some inventive ideas. Of course, it is almost impossible to do in 2020, but my son wanted me to include it any way. You see, last year, he received an actual white elephant statue, and he couldn’t wait to regift it this year.
8. Cutting Your Own Tree: Granted, this one will require spending some money, but it is so worth the memories. Also, if you like a large tree like we do, cutting your own is actually cheaper than purchasing from a big box store or nursery. When I was little, my parents started the tradition of taking our family to a tree farm near where we spent Thanksgiving. All these years later, I live about an hour from that same tree farm, so my kids get to have the same experience. In fact, we’ve been going there so long that the owners put my wedding announcement up in the wreath room. Talk about making a customer feel special!
9. Ornaments: Whether you make one or buy one, have an ornament that represents something from each year. All three of our children already have a large enough eclectic collection that they are set for the first year they need to decorate their own tree.
10. Decorating the Tree: You’ve got the tree and the ornaments, now is the time to decorate it, right? This is another simple way to make some special memories. For instance, we always tease my husband not to cut any off, even though we tend to choose a 9-10 foot tree. Then, hubby puts on the lights, and the rest of us grab our individual ornament boxes. I love this special time of each child remembering who have them which ornament and what it means to them.
11. Stockings: Our youngest told me the surprises that come out of her stocking are some of the best Christmas memories, and once she said it, the older two agreed. Santa has some staples he sticks in there – oranges, small packs of Kleenex, and chocolate – but everything else is a total mystery. And that makes pulling everything out of your stocking fun.
12. Christmas Morning Suspense: Yep, it shocked me, too, when my kids said this was a favorite tradition. Apparently waiting with your sibling at the top of the stairs while your parents get the tree lights turned on and breakfast in the oven also makes wonderful memories. And if that doesn’t tell you special traditions don’t have to cost a dime, I don’t know what does.
Wishing you and yours the merriest of seasons.
When I was a small child, my parents started taking me to a local Christmas tree farm near my grandparents’ house. We would always go visit the farm on the Friday after Thanksgiving to find the perfect evergreen. Some years, they weren’t even open to the public yet, but they would always let us go ahead and cut down our tree. It should come as no surprise that when I had my own children, I wanted them to experience this very special tradition.
Thankfully, my kids have loved visiting the tree farm as much as I ever did. The friendly beagles, hot apple cider, fresh pine scent, and the hunt for the perfect tree are all just as magical to them as they were to me. I know, you are thinking I’m going to say all that changed in 2020 … but it was actually 2019.
You see, the farm had a terrible needle cast problem that year. Long story short, it is a fungus that affects certain evergreen trees, causing needles to turn brown and fall off. At worst, it can completely decimate a tree, and at best, it leave you with large bare spots or limbs with few needles. We decided we didn’t care and went to hunt for a tree anyway. It took some time, but we finally found one, and we still got to see the owner (who is like family), have cider, hear music, visit the shop, and we were so happy we had made the hour+ trek to the farm.
Enter 2020. We knew things were going to be different. The trees are still recovering from needle cast. The shop is closed due to coronavirus, meaning no friendly visits, no cider, no new ornaments from the Christmas shop. We were still determined, however, to support a business that means the world to us. I, for one, was not truly prepared for how badly things would look once we got there.
We saw quite a few cars leaving without trees. Once we started into the field, we heard a lot of grumbling about how few good choices there were. And I’m not going to lie, it was nothing like the gorgeous choices I’ve seen for four decades. The trees had beautiful, classic Christmas shapes, but they also had large bare patches and very few needles. It would have been really easy to walk away and buy a precut “perfect” tree from some store, but we decided to find a selection there no matter what.
Some people may say we settled. We prefer to think that we found the perfect tree for our family. And to be totally in line with crazy 2020, we did something we’ve never done before and decided to name our tree … Trevor. He may not be full of needles or really green, but he is ours, and Trevor will brighten our home with the true meaning of Christmas.
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Does everyone in your house wake up at the same time? Yeah, that’s definitely not the case around here. That small detail is a major factor in how this story came to be.
My middle child gets up at the crack of dawn. He sees things around the house the rest of us never know about. Case in point:
Several hours after he witnesses said event, he tells me the story of how he woke up, came downstairs, ate breakfast … and then saw the lid off of his sister’s hermit crab cage and a cat with its front paw inside. He shooed the cat away, put the lid on, told his father the story right then and there, and then waited several hours to tell me.
When he told me, I was so happy he had been there to save the day! Until about 30 minutes later when he asked if the hermit crabs had changed their shells.
Me: I don’t know, they could have changed. Pick the shell up and see.
Son: But I don’t even see the shells in there.
Me, blood pressuring rising: Did either you or your father check to see if the hermit crabs were still in there when you put the lid back on?
The short answer is … NO.
Then the hunt was on. Those suckers had at least a four start on us. They could have been anywhere. My living room looked like it had been hit by a tornado while we looked and placed our feet VERY carefully. After moving the sofa, one hermit crab was found. After about 45 minutes, the second was found hiding in an empty LEGO box under a chair. (Why was the empty box under the chair? Your guess is as good as mine.)
Crabs found, kids are happy, all was well, right? Nope, cuz now momma wanted to clean behind and underneath all the furniture we moved. And that’s how hermit crabs helped me get my living room clean, down to scrubbed baseboards. Who knew they could be so useful?!
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I think most of us can agree that if something is going to go wonky, it will happen in 2020.
Many of us have missed birthday, graduations, weddings, visits with grandparents, as well as smaller things like county fairs, going to the movies, and simple grocery store trips. Imagine my surprise when pumpkins are what interjected normalcy back into our lives.
First I need to back up to March when the world shut down. As things were closing and cancelling one by one, our 9 year old asked, “We’ll still be able to trick-or-treat, right?” This silly momma laughed it off, saying of course, because who in their right mind thought certain government officials would want to keep us locked up for over seven months?!
Well, here we are in October, and various people want to cancel Halloween (which is a topic for a whole other post.) I was scrambling to find a way to keep some of our traditions alive, not only for our youngest, but also for our eldest during her last year at home. Enter our local pumpkin patch.
We live in an area that has multiple pumpkin patches, from easy drive thru and grab a few to large farms of pick-your-own. About seven years ago, we discovered one of the latter with which we fell in love, and we’ve been back every year since. It is a family-owned, multiple generation farm, currently run by a lovely young woman whose goal is to share her passion of agriculture with others.
I was worried the pumpkin patch would be another Rona casualty. Imagine my delight when they announced they would be opening … with slight differences of course, but at least opening! No hay rides – okay, I can live with that. No hay bale maze, cornhole games, or corn sandbox. I can deal with that, too. There would still be the amazing wagon deal on pumpkins, pick-your-own sunflowers, and the fantastic photo op of “how many pumpkins tall are you?” All great stuff, but the best news? The farm took a common sense measure on masks.
You see, the area is HUGE. Plenty of room to socially distance from others and still find your perfect pumpkin. That means no masks required (although recommended for the one person in your party you send to check out, which is also done outside.) Finally, FREEEEEEDDDDOMMMMMMM! Someone who recognizes that outdoors, breathing in fresh air, away from others, there is no need to strap something across your face, unless you choose to do so.
Pumpkins may not seem like a big deal, but I am incredibly grateful for this little bit of normalcy in our lives. And yes, I got a bit teary when I thanked the farmer for all of her hard work.
