I am a huge fan of holidays and traditions. I
love celebrating other people’s birthdays and creating lasting memories.
However upon reflection, it might not appear so…
Oskar is two and a half years old and we have
yet to experience: Valentine’s Day cards, an Easter egg hunt, a birthday
celebration with balloons, decorations and gift bags, trick or treating or
sitting on Santa’s lap. Solely based on American standards, it appears we have
become accidental Jehovah’s Witnesses!!
Okay, in all honesty while we don’t celebrate
holidays the Hallmark way, we do celebrate them the Breuer/Gimbel Way... We
have dyed Easter eggs with friends, picked out pumpkins at a pumpkin patch and
gotten dressed up for the neighborhood Halloween extravaganza. We have started
the tradition of celebrating Oskar’s birthday at the Lake every year with
family, cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. We enjoy Thanksgiving weekend ever year with
turkey on Thursday, goulash on Friday and a full day of baking cookies. And I
wouldn’t want to forget all of our traditions for Christmas including picking
out ornaments, cooking (and eating) the various special meals and receiving
enough advent calendars to enjoy a new one each day (when you combine two
families’ traditions of receiving advent calendars from the parents plus both
your husband and sister-in-law decide to own and expand the same tradition it
gets a little out of hand.)
Unfortunately for me, the “Christmas tree in a bar” tradition never
caught on although I am hoping post- Christmas Eve service Irish Coffees does.
Okay, so while we might not have Valentine’s
Day chocolates, Easter candy, Halloween tricks or treats or a photo of Oskar
and Alva crying on the lap of some random man dressed up as Santa, I think we
are still doing okay in creating lasting memories. And clearly Oskar doesn’t
seem to notice or mind. According to him
every day is a reason to celebrate and receive presents…he thinks every box in
the mail is a present for him and I am happy to keep it that way (even if that
box might only contain diapers or light fixtures for the house).
Below are a few photos from Thanksgiving this
year!
Happy Holidays Everyone!
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| Looking at trains with cousin Alton |
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| Story time with Aunt Cindy |
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| Oskar and Alva's first bath together. |
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| Oskar riding his new bike...because why wait for Christmas to get a bike? |
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| Cookie time! |
