Christmas Traditions

We have a tradition in our home to put up our Christmas tree the fist Monday after Thanksgiving. This year was lot of fun because Sophie was old enough to help, or hinder which ever way you look at it. We had fun watching Sophie, her eyes lit up when she saw the lights on the tree and then she got even more excited when we started putting ornaments on the tree. She kept saying over and over, pretty pretty. We decided since we did not have any non-breakable bulbs we would leave the glass bulbs off the tree this year and decorate it with all of my childhood ornaments I collected each year for Christmas growing up as well as some Stewart and I have added to the collection since being married. One of our traditions is to get a new tree ornament each year that represents that year. We have added an ornament with Stewarts Medical school initials on it, WVSOM, one with the first town we lived in when we moved to West Virginia, Lewisburg, one we found in the parking lot at the Holt Arena walking home from school after we got married, one with the picture of the Boise Temple on it, since that is where we got married, one with Sophie’s little newborn hand print on it, and many more. This year Stewarts new ornament was little Bateman ornaments, since he keeps telling me he is Bateman, his answering machine on his cell phone even makes reference to the fact he is Bateman. Sophie is into Big Bird so she got a Big Bird ornament that she finds every morning and pulls it off the tree to carry around with her throughout the day. I did not get an ornament this year, I can’t seem to find one that fits me, maybe I will find one during the after Christmas sales, or I will make one since I have been big into crafting this year, guess we’ll see. Below are some pictures of Stewart and Sophie decorating the tree, I was there but someone had to take the pictures.

Another one of our Traditions is to make Graham Cracker houses, with friends each year. This year we invited the Stacy family and Larry Petrie over for dinner and festivities. We had a lot of fun, even thought trying to build a house with a toddler demanding your attention was tricky. Stewart and I built three town houses, the Stacy family built an LDS temple, and Larry built a church with a nativity on the backside. This was Larry’s first time ever participating in GC house building; I think he enjoyed it along with everyone else. I think this is one of our favorite traditions, we always make sure to build the house as a couple so that we can learn how to communicate better with one another. Good times… below are some pictures of us with our finished projects. Enjoy!

Larry Petire, Stewart North, and Brian Stacy

Larry's wife lives in Idaho so she is missing, Becky North, and Laura Stacy