Today's tradition is from one of the first bloggers I ever followed.
Callie is the beautiful voice behind the blog Through Clouded Glass.
Callie is a follower of Jesus, wife, mother (to 2 cute kiddos and another on the way!), and a dental hygienist.
Her blog is inspiring is so many ways. Callie does her own blog designs, and has some great tips for any DIY bloggers. She shares about her family, faith, and insights of what God is teaching her. I am always encouraged when I read Through Clouded Glass.
When Veronica asked me to write a guest post about one of our family traditions, I had a really hard time picking one. I was blessed to grow up in a wonderful Christian family, and I have so many good memories of things we used to do together on the holidays.
First, I should probably introduce myself! My name is Callie, and I blog over at Through Clouded Glass. My husband and I have been married for five years, and we have two adorable kids and one on the way! We are generally still trying to figure out which activities are going to become our family traditions (I'm thinking our local Christmas parade might be one of them - we have plans to go the weekend after Thanksgiving!).
Since we're still figuring out our own future traditions, today I'm going to share one of the family traditions from my childhood. I ran through so many memories in my head, but one thing that I remember always looking forward to every Christmas season was our annual Christmas shopping day.
We would pick a day sometime in December to be our shopping day for my mom. We'd wake up, and I would pick out my favorite wintery outfit to wear. Then my brother and sister and I would pile into my dad's truck, and off we went.
My mom would head out separately to get some shopping done herself, so it was just us kids with my dad. We'd usually stop somewhere and get some juice or something to drink. Then we'd take my mom's wish list and go hunting for things to buy her for Christmas. We'd make sure to buy a new Christmas CD to listen to as we went from store to store.
Sometime in the midst of our shopping we'd stop for lunch, and we would always go to Arby's. My dad would let us order whatever we wanted, and I usually just got a roast beef sandwich and a root beer.
After we finished our shopping we would meet up with my mom and we'd all go out to a movie together - then afterward we'd go to Dairy Queen for a Blizzard before we headed home.
It was fun for obvious reasons, but I think my favorite thing wasn't the shopping and buying, or the movie, or the eating out. I think my favorite thing about our shopping days was just getting to spend time with my dad. Even though it was all three of us, not just me, it was so fun for us kids to get the whole day to have dad just to ourselves. We'd chatter and laugh and sing Christmas songs. It was a sweet time, and I still miss it when I think back on it.
(My dad and me on Christmas Day, twenty-ish years ago.)
I don't know if an annual shopping day will be something that Derek will do with our kids or not (since I can't exactly force him to plan a day of shopping for me!), but I will definitely encourage him to just head out with the kids without me to do something fun, especially during Christmas.
We will make a ton of memories together as a family, and the kids ail make a ton of memories with just me. Sometimes the memory-making with just dad has to be a little more intentional, but I know from personal experience that those memories are very special. I want our kids to have that too.
Aren't traditions the best! If you would like to share a family tradition, you will get your chance on Friday, December 13th! Come on back here for the Adventures in Tradition Link Party! Our final tradition will be shared by Bailey from Becoming Bailey ~ And it's one that you don't want to miss!
Thank you so much or letting me guest post or you Veronica!
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