Traditions: Part 3

I have posted some traditions that we do as a family at my house during December. We have done St. Nicholas Day, the tree decorating followed by the movie "It's a Wonderful Life' with hot cocoa and the first batch of fudge or cookies. Now we do another tradition that is always a surprise for Daddy. It involves my oldest daughter, Courtney and I. I began this tradition when she was just 5 months old. I was on a year long maternity leave and decided to do some Christmas shopping in a small town in the mountains near us. I held her up to a beautifully decorated Christmas tree and she grabbed at a cream-colored heart with a red velvet 'hook" and the word "Rejoice" written on it in black. I decided right then to begin a tradition of my oldest buying daddy a special ornament for each year. Something that has special significance to something that happened or that we experienced together as a family or with the two of them. This year we haven't decided yet....or I should say, I haven't had a chance to take her out with me....a high school honors classes student has very little time for shopping. She does have an idea of what she wants to get so....it might mean going online this weekend and paying a little more for shipping but......we will keep you posted!
The following is a list of ornaments that she has given her daddy in his stocking since 1993:

• 1993: heart that says "Rejoice"...we rejoiced at her birth in July of that year!
• 1994: a computer (he is a software engineer!)
• 1995: Disney Dalmations on a heart (they watched the movie often that year as she was really into "101 Dalmations"
• 1996: glass tree (because she thought it was pretty)
• 1997: a teddy bear daddy wearing a red scarf (because he still has a red scarf that his mom made years ago and he still wears it!...that year, he bought me the same ornament only it was a mommy bear)
• 1998: a gingerbread house (because she made a real one in kindergarten that year)
• 1999: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (one of our favorite animated xmas shows)
• 2000: Veggie Tales (Bob & Larry on a sled...because her baby sister was really into the videos and we all watched them ad nauseum!)
• 2001: a special patriotic one in remembrance of the 9/11 tragedy..because we are NY'ers these little ornaments were everywhere!
• 2002: Snoopy (because they enjoyed watching the Charlie Brown xmas show together)
• 2003: Cat in the Hat (because her little sister was really into Dr. Seuss books and we had to read one every nite! we even memorized one...but that is for another post!)
• 2004: a moose (because of our trip to Maine (twice...once in July, once in Oct.)
• 2005: a glass icicle of red and silver twirls....simply breathtaking..she says she chose it because it was so gorgeous.
  
• 2006: a pink Victorian dollhouse (because he has been making a real one for Courtney ever since she turned 7 and it still isn't done so she figured this would get him going on completion!)

Check back in sometime to find out what this year's surprise ornament will be!