The importance of traditions

Since we've been together hubby and I have always exchanged gifts on Christmas eve after our daughter has gone to bed (the boys spend Christmas eve with their mom). This time allowed us to share our gifts in peace - something that simply does not exist in our household on Christmas day. Christmas day is about the kids, and the wider family.

This year I had a brilliant idea - lets not buy gifts for each others since we're going to a Calgary Flames game in Buffalo (and the tickets were not cheap)... we'll call that our gift to each other. Good idea, financially responsible... miserable.

Hubby was in such a funk Christmas eve and I simply hated the fact that weren't spending that time together. It's the one time of the year that we really put a lot of thoughts into gifts to show how much we care for each other. This year I took it away. We talked and both agree it was the wrong thing to do... so we are going to do a little mini Christmas for each other in the next week. It's important for US and we're not really good at protecting the things that are US related.

It's amazing how important our traditions become. They are the stabilizing force in families, those familiar things that people look for as a sign that their world is still ok. We fiercely protect the traditions that we have built with the kids but we need to do that for ourselves too. We need to know our world is ok.