11/26/11 – “Tradition”

Today, my “30 Days of Thankful” item is, tradition. Like most families, we have several things throughout the year that we do, every year, without fail. From places we go (Sever’s Corn Maze, Aamodt’s Apple Orchard, etc.), to special events (like, putting up our Christmas tree and our summer trip to Duluth). These traditions seem to grow and multiply every year. We find new exciting things to do, new events to share with our kids. It’s so fulfilling, and it amazing to see the changes in what we do, and what the girls think, from year to year as they get older. As they understand more, and start to form memories of doing things, it’s wonderful to watch the joy they experience.

We had another very low key start to the day today. Family time, hanging out eating leftovers, watching some kid friendly movies and just being together. After some long naps, we were off on today’s tradition. The Holidazzle Parade in Minneapolis, followed up by the Macy’s Christmas Display. This year, my BFF and her family joined us for the parade, which always brightens my day. This is the first weekend of the parade…we try to go as early as possible before it gets too cold. It was pretty chilly tonight, but we all survived. The girls LOVED all of the lights and music, it was so great watching them take it all in. After the parade, we rushed over to Macy’s to check out the display. Back, before Macy’s bought out Marshall Fields, they used to change the display every year – “The Wizard of Ox”, “Alice in Wonderland”…all kind so fun stories, coming to life. Macy’s did not want to carry on the tradition, so their “compromise” was to put up a display, and use the same one every year – “A Day in the Life of an Elf”. It’s cute, but very short, and not too exciting to see every year. The good thing is that the girls don’t know the difference, and they were s in awe of it this year, it was worth a repeat trip. And, the really good thing, is that it used to take forever to get through the line up to the display, but it seems most people are not interested in seeing the same display, because we were in and out in no time this year.

Finally, we were on our way home. Everybody was pretty exhausted…the girls went right to bed, and Christian and I were not far behind. What can I say, obviously too much excitement in our old age :)

Here are some pictures from today. We let the girls pick out their own little tree for their room, so we set that up. And, of course, pics from our Holiday night out.