Traditions...

I love Christmas traditions! LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM!
We have made a point now that we have children and our "own" family, to begin our family traditions. Sometimes it is hard to come up with a tradition to start.

The first year we were married we tried to start the tradition of going to cut down our own tree. IT WAS A DISASTER... We followed a mapquest map for 3 hours before realizing it was taking up the longest way ever to cashiers, NC. We got to the tree place (because they had reindeer) and there were no reindeer there that day. Then we go out to cut our tree and realize there are no trees taller then 3 feet or smaller then 14 feet. We walk back to talk to the guy who tells us that they had to cut them all down because of a big ice storm. So we drove 3 hours to buy a pre-cut tree. We got it home and had a disaster of a time trying to get the tree cut and in the stand. So we decided to end that tradition and try some new things.

Some of the traditions that stuck around are:
1. Every Thanksgiving night we "begin" our christmas holiday by watching Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation.
2. I decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving (I didn't do it this year because I was out of town)
3. On christmas eve we make hot chocolate and read the Christmas story- "the real one from the bible"
4. We get a new ornament for our tree every year.

These are some of our traditions... what are yours? I would love to know what other people do for their traditions.