Starting a New Tradition

This is our 4th Christmas to spend together as a married couple.

We have tried out a few different traditions - some we got from other people, some we got from our families, and others we created ourselves.

Some have stuck.

Some have not.

And for some, its still a little early to tell.

This year though we decided to start a new tradition, and I can already tell that it is one we will keep doing each year.

Going together to pick out a Christmas book.

We got the idea from a family at our church.

They all go as a family to Barnes and Noble, or any other bookstore.

They each pick out a Christmas book that they like.

They read through them all in the store together.

And then they all decide which one is the best, and that is their Christmas book for the year.

They've been doing this for several years, and now have over 20 books collected!

We decided to give it a try.

These are the books we picked at first.

We sat together in Barnes and Noble and read through each of them.

Well, most of them.

A couple of them we hated after only 5 pages.

So they were out!

Another one had a typo...

It said "Donder" instead of "Donner"

Really Mary Engelbreit??

So it was out!

(And I was sad! I really wanted it! It was so pretty!)

Then we read The Happy Elf.

It was so cute!

Not your typical, Night Before Christmas, 

but still traditional enough to meet all of my requirements for the holiday.

It also came with a CD.

We both loved it, and decided it would be perfect for our first annual Christmas book!

We also found out that there is a movie about The Happy Elf!

Its on Netflix Instant.

If you haven't read it, or seen it - Do it!!

Its cheesy, but so darn cute!

This week I am going to write about some of the other traditions that we have as a couple.

And then we will be in Oklahoma, so I will share some of our family's traditions as well!! 

What traditions do you have that you love??