traditions...big and small

So, Christmas has arrived to our house, and with it has come all of our normal traditions, and a new one too.  Each year we try to get a new nativity, and this year we found a fun advent calendar.  I loved advent calendars when I was a kid, and was bummed that I could not find one a few years back, but recently they have come back into popularity, so now we have one;-)
We, being us, do not have a normal advent, we have a Lego advent, with every day opening up to reveal a new, to be made, Lego item, to complete our Medieval castle scene, so fun!!!  It is great, and the kids are beside themselves to begin opening the doors:-)
Our new Nativity is really lovely, and also has an advent feature, with every day adding a new scripture card that tells the story of the birth of Christ, so it will be fun to do both this year.
I love having these traditions with the kids, Gabe and Mia are both old enough now to know our traditions, and to remember, and have stories of their own, about ornaments, or funny memories from Christmas past. This is the first year for that really, where they have their own memories, and can tell stories about their ornaments, and now of course, because of the flooding earlier this year, they can tell stories of floating ornament boxes, and funky decorations, all good stuff there;-)  Having family traditions is important, even more so for G and Mia, since they have lost so much, to have, and make something new to carry forward is a big deal to them.  This new tradition of advent and nativities will be something they carry forward, a tradition for them, with stories of our Ethiopian Mary and Joseph, and their handmade clay creche scene, and of course gorging on Chinese food once the decorating is done.  Traditions, no matter how big or small are all important, so we plan to make many more.