What kind of traditions do you follow and celebrate this time of year?
When my daughters were pre-teens/teens our Black Friday usually involved sleeping late, splurge on lunch somewhere fun, and doing a little Christmas shopping. It was our girls' day out together, and I looked forward to it each year. At lunch I would give them their annual new Christmas ornaments. It became our mother/daughter tradition - until they were college age and both began working in health care where working holidays is part of the norm. So now the ornaments are given on whatever day we celebrate Thanksgiving together, and the annual ornament tradition has of course extended to the 5 grandkids. This year we actually had family Thanksgiving ON Thanksgiving!
This year's ornaments for the grandkids were all purchased on our Alaskan adventure this past summer. For the boys I bought wooden Russian fisherman in Sitka. There was a really interesting shop in Sitka that carried all kinds of Alaska and Russian themed art, and also had a HUGE Christmas shop. The metal pine tree/moose ornaments for the girls came from a cute shop in Ketchikan.
My annual ornament tradition also involves purchasing an ornament for MYSELF when traveling. I liked the metal pine tree and moose so much I got one for myself too. The painted Alaska ball was found in Juneau. And the 2 desert themed ornaments came from Arizona (top) and New Mexico.
Here is the gorgeous NEW cardinal hanging in my tree this morning. My older daughter surprised me with this ornament yesterday at Thanksgiving dinner. I absolutely LOVE it!
No Black Friday shopping is planned for today, but we do plan to go to a college basketball game this evening. Hopefully the Christmas Tree with go up today. And I plan to do some "playing" in my sewing room if time allows.
I remember the Russian Shop in Sitka and spending money there!
ReplyDeleteYou found some great and unique ornaments during your travels, great memories! And your cardinal one is perfect. I ordered a new T-Fal set of cookware this morning for my Black Friday shopping. Yesterday the trees got set up, will hang the ornaments sometime this weekend.
ReplyDeleteVery nice ornaments! Those Russian fishermen are awesome!
ReplyDeleteGiving tree ornaments is a lovely tradition in your family.
ReplyDeleteGiving tree ornaments is a lovely tradition in your family.
ReplyDeleteIt's sometimes sad that traditions change, but sometimes the new options are even more fun. Love all those ornaments, especially the cardinal. I'm a cardinal fan as well and found myself a new ornament yesterday. Sounds like you had a very fun Thanksgiving with the family.
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