Bucking Tradition.....

I'm sad. Sad because the realization that this holiday season is going to be anything but "traditional" for me. Shawn is working a 48 hour shift starting the morning of Thanksgiving. "We've got to pay for Christmas somehow". I've got people to be with, and food to eat, so I don't feel sorry for myself. Just sad that this year Shawn won't be around to enjoy it with. Which brings me to Christmas. All growing up my most favorite Christmas tradition was the opening of pajamas on Christmas Eve. My mom would always wrap them in different paper than everything else so she could find them when it came time to open them. Or, she'd put some kind of hidden marking somewhere so she knew secretly which ones held the pajamas. Every year we'd ask "what time are we opening our pj's mom?" Every year she'd reply "what makes you think you are getting any this year? Maybe I'm not doing that anymore." Sometimes she'd be sneaky and when it came time to open our one gift Christmas Eve she'd let us choose the gift. We'd pick whatever we wanted, open it, and assume this was that year. Except then she'd say, "okay. One more. But I get to choose." Even though there was little surprise to this tradition, it was always my favorite. Maybe it was the comfort of knowing my Mom was predictable and loved us enough to do the same thing year after year because she knew we loved it. Whatever it was, it's my most absolute favorite tradition ever. I even got pajamas every Christmas after I was married until we stopped going to Idaho to celebrate the holiday. Pretty much anyone that sleeps in my Mom's house Christmas Eve will open pajamas. Even though most of us our married. And my brother Matt is too tall to fit into anything picture worthy. Lovely tradition. That is why I'm sad. This tradition is not going to be at my house this year. It has been around since Ethan was little. Almost 8 years I've either made or bought new pj's for my kids to unwrap the night before Santa visits. This year I'm being practical. Ethan and Jackson are like furnaces at night and prefer to sleep in tighty-whities than anything else. Kennedy grows so fast she gets new pajamas often enough that there is no novelty. And Landon. His drawers are crammed with remnants of Christmas past. Why should I spend money on something my kids will wear one night, then never again. If I had excessive amounts of money this probably wouldn't be an issue. But I don't. Is it crazy for me to buck tradition on practicality? As I've made up my mind, and am typing this up, Kennedy walks in. I ask her what her most favorite tradition our family has every Christmas. Her response? "Opening presents. Like the pajamas we get on Christmas Eve." I'm secretly smiling that practicality cannot win out this year. It wouldn't be fair to yank a memory of childhood. My children seem to love this tradition as much as I did as a kid. Traditions. I guess the good ones aren't allowed to change.