Last year at this time we were still visiting colleges and waiting on acceptances, not to mention going through all of the senior year craziness with end of high school ceremonies, activities… Wow, what a year can bring. When I think back on everything that has passed it’s amazing how much can change. I knew it was coming but I don’t think you’re ever ready for it. There are growing pains and I’m not going to sugar coat it, having my first go off to college was really, really hard. It changed the dynamics of our home and, as I’m learning, family traditions. 
We had our holiday photoshoot a couple of weeks ago and started talking about what we all traditionally do along with favorite holidays memories (go to my Instagram and you can follow the conversation). I told the girls my favorite tradition is that we name our Christmas tree. I know it sounds crazy (and it is) but here’s how it started. We travel a little over an hour to cut down a fresh tree. We’ve been doing it ever since the kids were little. They loved getting out of the car, chasing each other through the trees and being part of cutting it down. The ride back was when they were in need of a diversion (ie. on the verge of meltdowns) which began the naming of our tree. We call out names, it switches from male to female each year and by majority vote decide on a name. We’ve had Christina, Max, Theodore, Noelle, Holly and Peter to name a few. This year I thought, here’s another change that I really don’t want to happen. We didn’t have time to get a tree over Thanksgiving and now the Christmas tree tradition is over. We had plans to get one with my daughter last weekend and at the last minute she said let’s wait until next weekend when all of us can go together. So I suppose I’m not the only one who would like some things to stay the same.

I’m happy to say it is less than a couple of weeks away from Christmas and we still don’t have a tree. BUT we will. I’ll let you know it’s name in a future post:). Wishing you much love spending time with the ones you love, whether continuing old traditions or creating new ones.

www.paigepphotography.com