Traditions

I love the fall. It is a beautiful time of the year. The leaves changing colors and falling off the trees. The pumpkin patches to visit. The chill in the morning air. The excitement for the holidays, and the yummy smell of goodies in the oven. Hot cocoa. It is great. Now that we are overseas and don't get the enjoyment of having all four seasons, I miss fall. But nonethelesss we still enjoy having the cocoa and the holidays. As a military family it is good to come up with your own little family traditions. For years we lived  near our family and celebrated almost every holiday with them. Now that we are overseas, we don't have that luxury. But what made it a little better was that we had already started some of our own little family traditions. For instance, while we always celebrated Christmas Day with family, on Christmas eve we as our own little family would have a Christmas eve dinner and go look at the Christmas lights, and sometimes we would go to a late Christmas eve service. It was really nice to have some traditions so that while it was hard not having family near for the holidays, we had some of our own traditions to fall back on. Let me encourage you, if you are far away from your own extended family on this upcoming holiday season, make some traditions and celebrate them with your family. Even if you are close by, it is always nice to have some traditions that are your own.