Christmas-Post 2

Traditions
I have been thinking about traditions lately and my mom gave me a good book to read called "Traditions: Creating Memories to Draw Your Family Close" written by Kimberly L. Bytheway and Diane H. Loveridge. The book has all kinds of ideas for each holiday of the year plus traditions for everyday family things that we do like scripture study, family mealtime, vacations, birthdays, etc. I was flipping through it last night and found that there were some great ideas in there that I would like to implement and some that my mother implemented while I was growing up.
I particularly like traditions that continue through the generations. You know when the kids you have grow up and get married and carry the traditions you started in your family into theirs and so on. Bryan and I have several of these traditions that we are trying to keep in our family.
From my family one of these traditions is that each year on Christmas Eve we open 2 gifts: a new pair of pajamas and an ornament that represents something we did or accomplished, or somewhere we went that year. It's pretty cool because when we were married, I ended up having over 20 ornaments to decorate our tree with.
From Bryan's family: they always have a tradtion of a Chrsitmas program on Christmas Eve. (We would read Luke 2 and other Christmas stories, but his family went all out.) Each person in his family had to prepare a talent, a story, or something to share with the family. Then of course they would act out the First Christmas as children dressed in angel, shepherd costumes etc.
Every time I think of the word traditions I think of a talk/ speech that Sister Cheryl C. Lant gave talking about the righteous traditions we have and need to have in our families entitled "Righteous Traditions."
So regardless of where you live or what stage in life you are in traditions are important to have: especally those that are righteous and uplifting to you and your family.
In our Church Magazine (The Ensign) for December there is an article that mentions several other Christmas traditions that others do as a family to focue more on the Savior. see here