chrissie: day one

It is the first day of the Christmas season (I have made a case for this elsewhere), and celebrations must ensue.

It has taken a few years to encourage my OTL into the full Christmas Season Experience.  Sure, he was a generous gift giver.  Sure he is never shy with the loving.  However, his reclusive bachelor days had left him parched of full Christmas spirit and it has taken a number of years to fill the well, as it were.  To be fair, he has been a quick study and, this year, I think he's finally got it.  He was heard, recently, planning not one but several Christmas baking days for the weekends to come, after all.  Bless him.

And then there is the issue of Tiny.  To be charged with the responsibility of creating Christmas Traditions for your child is truly a great task.  There is the whole Santa debate - to make-believe or not - and then there's a seemingly endless list of possible Christmas traditions that could be incorporated into one family's affairs.  Should we put an orange in a clog, for instance, as the Dutch do?  Should we dress in disguise and impose ourselves on our neighbours for alcoholic beverages, as the Newfoundlanders do?  Should we make swimming at the beach on Boxing Day mandatory, as the Australians do?  It is, indeed, a difficult set of decisions.

Luckily, traditions can grow and change over time, and today was a mix of old and new.
 
A Christmas coffe from a large unnamed multinational coffee conglomerate. (new)
The obligatory Christmas magazine treat. (old)

The crayon-picture-a-day advent calendar for Tiny. (new)
Special Christmas fare (pikelets with cream cheese and smoked salmon). (old)

More special Christmas fare (garlic prawns and salad).  (old)

Making very short work of it. (old)

The lighting of the (one humble string of) Christmas lights. (new)
Love. (new and old)


Here's to traditions.  May they bind us, warm us and show us the way.


PS:  Turn up the volume, grab your loved ones and take a turn around the room.

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