Today’s task for Holiday Moments is to set a Christmas Eve tradition. There are lots of traditions out there and I think new ideas are created frequently for them. A simple Pinterest search will show you this. I love a lot of the ideas that are out there and wish we could start a few of them. I’m sure we’ll create a few of our own as we move forward towards expanding our family, but I’ve discovered that there’s one simple tradition that matters most to me and that is spending the holidays with someone you love. I want to take that a step further this year with a tradition that I think will matter a lot in years to come.
 
 
I love searching Pinterest for holiday related items. I love reading about the different ways that families celebrate and I cant wait to start family traditions of our own when we have kids. For now though, the family tradition that I’m happy with is simply being together for Christmas. Christmas and New Year’s are the only two holidays that we have spent together every year. Between work, long distance, deployments, and other conflicts, we have missed a large portion of all the other holidays – including birthdays and our first anniversary as a married couple. We’ve learned to accept this and it doesn’t bother us as much as it could, but I’m happy that my favorite holiday is also the one that we’ve been together every year for. This makes it even more special.
 
This year, I want to start a new tradition that I hope we can carry forward. It’s a tradition that I want to encourage you to start as well. My goal is for us to unplug for part of the day – no social media, phones, or television. I think it’s important that people break away from electronics from time to time and enjoy classic conversation and fun. I encourage you to do the same with your holiday company (even if it means putting a basket by the door to collect the cell phones…).
 
I would love to make the day completely unplugged but with family no where near us, the internet and our phones do allow us a way to communicate with family on Christmas and that’s super important to me. This is why it’s a partial unplugging. It’s also why you won’t see a lengthy blog post tomorrow. (There will be a short, simple post simply because I committed to blogging everyday this month and I’m sticking to that commitment!)
 
What’s your favorite holiday tradition? Would you be willing to unplug for at least part of the holidays?