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Our new Christmas tradition

A friend of mine called herself a "tradition junkie" the other day.  I laughed when she said it because I can so relate to the phrase.

I love traditions.  I love the traditions that I grew up with, and I especially love creating new ones with my husband and kids.  When I was growing up, one of my favorite things was to go and pick out our Christmas tree.  My mom and I would bring it home and decorate it with our special ornaments, including the Reed and Barton Annual Christmas Cross ornaments that my godmother has given me every year since I was a baby.  Now those cross ornaments decorate my own tree and I have started buying them for my own godson. 

Traditions are special because they mean something.  There is a special feeling and emotion attached to traditions that keep us coming back for more.  Christmas seems to bring out the "traditionalist" in all of us.  Most of us grew up doing special things around the holidays, and once we have our own families, we feel compelled to carry on those memories with our own kids.But sometimes even more fun than carrying on old traditions is creating new ones. 

Last weekend we headed down to Coronado Island, CA for a quick get-a-way.  My mother had told me that at the Hotel Del Coronado they had ice skating.  Now, Coronado Island is just that...and island with beaches and water and palm trees.  Ice skating is simply not the norm.  But on the side of the hotel that faces the ocean there is a large, green lawn that in the month of December they turn into an ice skating rink.  It's called "Skating by the Sea". 

"We have to do that," I told the Golfer.  "We live in Southern California where there is no ice and no snow.  It barely even gets cold here.  This might be my only real shot at anything winter."

The Monkey was too young (no skates to fit him), so my parents watched him while we signed our waivers and rented our skates.  For the three of us it cost $55, but a portion of that benefits the Make-A-Wish Foundation of San Diego, which made me even more excited to do it. 

Let me just tell you, there's nothing quite like ice skating with the beach only 20 yards away.  We were surrounded by palm trees and sunshine, but there we were wearing our ice skates and listening to "Jingle Bells" on the loud speaker.  It felt like Christmas to me. 

The Cheese isn't the bravest 5-year-old you'll ever meet, so I wasn't sure how long he would last.  He totally surprised me because loved it!  Of course, he was holding on to us for major support, but even when I fell down and almost took him with me, he just kept on going.  (I still have a massive bruise on my knee as an ice skating souvenir.)  When he did eventually tire out, the Golfer and I held hands and smiled at each other as we skated on our own for the rest of the hour.

"This is going to be one of our new traditions," I told him.  "We need to do this every year."

"Absolutely," he agreed. 

And as he did, I felt that rush that every tradition junkie gets when a new tradition is born.  It's kind of like the rush you get when you eat a lot of sugar, but instead of gaining weight, you gain lots of memories instead.