New Traditions
If you’ve been following along you realize this is our first Christmas in a new old house in a new locale. The last twenty some years have been in our mountain lodge. Our oldest grands were little then and we had ten bunk beds in the “bunk room.” At Christmas each bunk had a Santa quilt I’d made for the lodge during the last year in our Atlanta. The kids grew up under the Santa quilts while the snow covered the ski slope where they spent the holiday at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in the mountains. Beginning last Christmas, still in the mountains, but with the oldest grands now adults and settled in their own places, I began to give the quilts away to them as their gifts. I knew the time had come to part company with ten quilts I’d have no place for when we moved. This year I gave away the next bunch to those who’d finished their education and moved on in life. I have one Santa quilt left. The recipient is a sophomore in high school, so I’ll be storing it for a few more years. The four youngest, like a second set of grands, weren’t part of that tradition. I’m going to begin four new Christmas quilts and at Christmas 2019, a new tradition will begin for them. This year their brand new tradition was sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor of Grandma’s bedroom. They created signs for the door of the “Slumber Party Room Kids Only except for Grandma and Grandpa.” Next year they will cover up under Christmas quilts in the slumber party room.
Our lodge had a huge table which latched to two other tables in the kitchen creating a banquet-sized table. This new old house is much smaller and we stewed about where we’d seat thirty people. It’s important to me that everyone has a seat at the table. We rented folding tables and chairs we planned to line up end to end in a straight line from kitchen through library to front room using the dining room as the food buffet. It seemed like it would work, then something unexpected happened. We weren’t thinking about being inside by a cozy fire; we were thinking about being outside in 70-degree sunshine. So, we did it. We put the tables outside and our beautiful Christmas dinner was served al fresco!
Will this become a new tradition? For children the creating of a tradition, meaning “this is how we always do it,” takes doing one time. So, it has probably taken root in their young memories already: At Christmas at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s we always eat outside.” Mother Nature may have other plans for that tradition.