Tradition, TRADITION!

When the holidays roll around, our lives become embedded with traditions.  Traditions make me so giddy!  They give me a sense of belonging, a sense of camaraderie, a sense of unity and joy.  Every year our neighbors host a "peach-fest" during the Fall.  They go up to Utah and buy huge boxes of peaches and return home to host us neighbors.  They invited us over for all peach desserts--peach pie, peach cheesecake, peach homemade ice-cream, and the list goes on (does that not sound divine?!).  Even though we are new neighbors, they invited us this year, and it made us so happy!  It reminded me of my fondness for traditions, and got me thinking on some of my own.

So I thought that I would do a small series on some of my family traditions and traditions that Brett and I are starting for our own family.  If you are interested, I'd love a guest blogger or two, to share one of their own unique traditions.

I thought I'd share the first tradition that Brett and I have started for our own family.  It even coincides well with the holiday season.  I got this idea from my Aunt Ruth Ann and Uncle Dan and their family, hopefully they don't care that I stole their idea!

Ever wonder what souvenir to get when you travel on vacation?  Everywhere you go, there are so many things that are options!  And pricey options at that!  Our first tradition solves this problem (especially once we have little kiddos begging us for everything in the store).

Everywhere we travel, we buy an ornament as a souvenir.  Then, at Christmas time, we can set up a small "travel tree".  As of now, we only have 3 ornaments (but seeing how we've only been married 6 months, I don't think that's too shabby!).  Our travel tree will be small for the next several years, but it is so fun to pick out an ornament together and watch our collection slowly grow.  We try to find an ornament that reflects the place we were visiting (and usually try to get something that states the place).  I know years down the road it will be a blast to look through our collection and remember the memories we created as a family.

Here's a glimpse at our small collection now:

Sort of creates an eclectic combo, but it brings back floods of memories with just a glance.  What are your favorite traditions?