Tradition-ey Goodness

So here's the deal. This will be a loooooong post. You've been warned.

I was reading Angela's blog (and Miss Angela, I hope you don't mind me linking you here), and thinking about Christmas traditions (which, I suppose, is what we're supposed to be doing this time of the year, right?).

Mike and I haven't been together very long - 4 years in February. We rarely fight, and when we do it's about one of three things: scrapbooking, money, and Christmas.

I am the Christmas Nazi. I always have been. Mid-December I seem to go into holiday over-drive, and the decorations come out, and the presents get bought, and the house gets a thorough cleaning to get ready for our Christmas party, and the baking goes on for days and weeks on end.

This drives my husband INSANE. It starts with the fact that I insist on having a real tree. Why? Because. I said so. It isn't Christmas unless the tree's real. But we have pets, he says. My pets have been trained for YEARS not to mess with the Christmas tree, I reply. Your pets = your problem. Now it's, "What about Zion?" Zion would do just as much messing with a real one as he would a fake one. "Not if it's only 3 feet tall and we put it on a table." A 3-FOOT TALL CHRISTMAS TREE?!? You have GOT to be joking, I say. No, he isn't. This is the part where I say, "Michael, I will compromise on anything that is important to you. You think I should stop scrapbooking? I'll stop. You want me to go on a spending freeze? I'll stop spending money. You decide it's time for me to start wearing wool socks in August? I'll do it for you. I. DO. NOT. COMPROMISE. ON. CHRISTMAS. Period."

So the other day, (gingerbread house decorating day, for those of you keeping track), I say, "Do you think I could just fit the Christmas tree in my back seat?" No, he tells me. Absolutely not.

Sounded like a dare to me. Shelby and I picked out the biggest Christmas tree we could find.



We had to cut off part of the trunk and the top, but this tree is now approximately 10 feet tall. Hell yes.

Last year, part of my compromise was that we got an African angel for the top of the tree. Mike likes this quite a bit.



One of my favorite parts of Christmas is putting away our "year-round" decorations and breaking out the Christmas stuff. Before scrapbooking consumed my life, I used to paint ceramics. Last Christmas I painted a bunch of Old World Santas, and I still love them.





Now Zion's old enough to assist with decorating the tree.





And he's capable of drinking an entire quart of eggnog in a sitting. No, I didn't let him, but he wanted to.



Not very exciting, I know, but it's ours. We're building our little family one tradition at a time, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. ;)

Now, my lovely little stalkers, it's time to go check the Serendipity Scraps blog. I think you'll find something you've been waiting for!