I passed along my love of Christmas to my girls, they get into the decorating part of it almost heavier than I do. When I lived in Indiana, at my house in Maxwell, we set up not one... not two... but THREE Christmas Trees in the house. We had a 4½ foot one we set in front of one of the picture windows in the living room. Now this living room had 4 large picture windows as it was a 24 foot by 17 foot size room. This tree was our "main tree" and the one that was the most carefully decorated since it was in front of a window. Then we put up a 10 foot tall tree near the staircase, this one we left lights off of in the decorating process (wonder why, huh?) but the one that had the leftover ornaments that we decided not to put on the smaller on along with the large construction paper works the kids brought home from school during the month of December along with any other school works they did that were holiday season geared in thought. This one was their favorite tree in the house!! Upstairs we set up a shabby artificial 6 foot tree in front of the upstairs window that faced out front ... and merely strung twinkle lights on it. This one never lasted long in this location as it invariably found itself migrated into the kids' bedroom itself before Christmas Eve! Hahaha!!!!
So this lone 1 foot tall tree in Pennsylvania was my "replacement tree" so FP- said. *chuckle* Now, when FP- and I got together as a couple, at first we didn't have a tree and no room to set up a live one. So we splurged one day back in 1996 when he let me get a one foot tall tree and a strand of colored lights. I happily trotted that little ol' tree home, set it up and fluffed it out and carefully encircled it with lights. I put on my few ornaments that it's size would acommodate and had him drop everything to watch me plug it in for the "first lighting". I was dismally disappointed as the lone strand blinked weakly around the branches. 3 more strands of lights later (2 sets of clear and 1 more colored set) and careful blending -- a new "lighting" gala, and the little sucker was finally starting to look like a Christmas Tree, complete with capital "T" on the tree part!! *laughing as FP- still rolls his eyes at the poor little tree beings cascaded with lights*
My girls go to visit my mom and still put up the 10 foot and 4 ½ trees after Thanksgiving at her place - This is Family tradition #1 that was handed down from my parents to my children. The tree was always put up on Thanksgiving Day or the day after at the latest.
I now travel from Pennsylvania to go "home" for the holidays. That is a new family holiday tradition #1 for our family, you might say. I usually travel to Indiana a couple of days after Christmas itself, so the girls can spend holiday time with other family members and such. FP- arranges time off work and we pack up the car for the 10 hour trek to my old stomping grounds.
The gifts for the girls are usually wrapped in color coordinated style, for example; Jessi's presents would be wrapped in blues, Meg's in greens, Nyssa's in red, and Steph's in goldish-yellow. This makes setting up easier since all the presents are set out in a stack per child arrangement. This is a tradition from my first child's Christmas on forward -- and don't ask me how but the kids always magnetically went to the right stack of gifts. It doesn't matter if I change colors for the wrapping paper year to year or set a child's stack on a different side of the tree - they instinctively know which one is theirs. *shrug* Versus what my parent's did for Christmas morning, all the my kids' presents are wrapped except for maybe two items at most that are arranged in with the wrapped parcels. The girls never got into the Christmas stockings, we hang them up but never fill them with gifts or candy.
So you are probably scratching the top of your head and saying, "OK, you have family holiday traditions but nothing really that different or extraordinary to comment upon..." *ahem* I am getting to that part.
Now before traveling to Indiana for the holidays, FP- and I are prepping for the trip to see the girls. We are doing the shopping and wrapping. The suitcases are packed for our stay. The apartment is decorated for the holiday season. Finally the day comes to head out towards Indianapolis area. The gifts are bagged up and packed into the trunk of the car. The suitcases are loaded in next and then FP- carries down Robby to fasten into his car seat while I carry down the last item needed for our Christmas in Indiana ... you guessed it, the lone 1 foot tall Christmas Tree!!
Now before you roll your eyes and say "oh geeze...." let me explain how this came to be a family tradition. Our first traveling Christmas holiday, FP- and I didn't have a lot of money to spend on the gifts although each kid still made a "haul" per se. To make it more Christmasy in feel since we go after the holiday itself and all ... we took along the little dinky tree that year, for a perk me up more so than anything in the motel room that the kids and I will be spending most of the time in while I am in Indiana. Since then, the kids ask if we remembered to pack that little ol' tree... so thus it is by fluke that we have a traveling Christmas Tree blended into our family holiday traditions now. *laugh*
When we hit Indianapolis, I check in to the motel and get the rooms set up while FP- goes to pick up the girls. By the time they get to the motel, the tree is set up and ablaze with lights and the gifts are arranged around the floor of the table (or wherever we set it up at) in one of the rooms we are going to occupy during our stay. The girls put away their bags among a flurry of excitement and chatter. Then comes time to assemble around the tree and begin the unwrapping process.
Another family tradition we have for the holidays is that we go to the Half-Price Bookstore in Castleton and then go to Broad Ripple to get some books and trinkets to add to the gifts from "Santa Claus". Yes, my girls know the actual story of "Santa" but they opted to keep the myth alive and well in our household. See, "Santa's" shopping habits never changed - "he" read the lists handed to "him" but "he" still was the one who went out to get the gifts and so the lists are merely ideas of thought. The shopping trips with them aren't attached to "Santa" ... just something new we started to do right before I moved to Pennsylvania and we now share with FP- and Robby.
Now these shopping trips are not simple outings. We raid the Half-Price Bookstore first, each kid get to choose 4 books or 2 books and 1 CD. Mommy naturally gets to select more than 4 books though. *chuckle* We pay for our purchases and pile back into the car, not an easy feat with 4 girls, a baby boy in a car seat, and 2 adults but we manage. 
We then head to Broad Ripple for phase two of the shopping adventure. We park behind New Age People, free all day parking there plus this is our favorite shop to visit. Megan usually gets a ring, Stephanie gets a rock for her "collection" since the rings here don't come small enough to fit her, Nyssa usually passes on getting anything in the store while Jessi selects a couple of wallet or postcards she thinks are "cool looking". We then walk to Chelsea's to look thru their selection, giggling over the funny cards they have while oohing and aahing over their merchandise. I point out a couple of items here to FP- that I would think would be nice to have, but he doesn't' take subtle hints well since I still have yet to receive one of the items I pointed out. Hahaha!! Artsy Phartsy's is next on our visiting list, then Picadilly's, then we load back into the car to head back to the motel to get ready to go out to eat supper.
If FP- is still up to cruising shopping places and the kids haven't reached their spending limit, then we go out for a while the next day in the Castleton area to shop - avoiding the actual mall itself though since we prefer the smaller, homier type shops.
By this point in time, we are all shopped out regardless if we had hit our allotted limit or not. We are perfectly content to now sit back and visit with each other. Each nite of my stay, I take one the girls alone out for a cup of hot chocolate and some private mommy-daughter talk time. We just sit and talk about school and stuff, but this important to both of us since it is uninterrupted chat time for us without any of the other children interrupting or wanting attention as well. If it is only a week-end visit then the trips are doubled up, I take one out and come back to take another one out; then repeat this on the next nite with the other two remaining girls. By the time it comes for me to head back to Pennsylvania I have hit my coffee quota for the week! *laughing*
The girls pose for a group picture before they get into the car to head back home. This is a modification of an old tradition I had of posing them for a group shot on Christmas evening. We say our good-bye's and make a start of plans for my next visit, then FP- drives them back home while I finish the checking out process at the motel, going thru the rooms one last time in case something was left behind.
Christmas, 1997 was the first time Robby got to experience not only Christmas - but also Christmas with his half-sisters. Now all Stephanie said when told that she was going to become an older sister to someone was that "if it's a girl, I won't be happy ... but it will be neat if it's a boy though." (She wanted to stay "the baby" even if was only due to gender.) If the picture here shows any indication, all the girls are thrilled with a new member to their family and he won't be lacking in getting attention from his older sisters. *grin*
To some people, the idea of spending a Christmas-type time together in a motel is ... well, hard to fathom. I thought so myself when we first thought about doing it. Yet, the girls look forward to the holiday season and the Christmas in a motel motif we have. What can I say other than I was blessed with great kids! *hugs*
Last Updated March 1998
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