Starting Somewhere.

There are so many things that you take simply at face value growing up. Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes. And then, Christmas trees. Ornaments, lights, garland. Presents and wrapping paper and toothbrushes tucked away in your stocking. These things are wonderful, and you cherish these things, and you love your mom and dad for orchestrating this wonderful time of year. But you don't really stop and think about the work behind it all.

I've lived on my own for a few years now. First in the dorms at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Then in an apartment with Jason. Then in an apartment with my friend Elise. Then in my friend Alex's house. Then back in with Jason. But in all of these places it was a given that I'd go home at Christmas. Before that I would help my mom decorate our tree. There was a tree and ornaments and stockings all waiting for us there.

And now we have our own place, and we are our own family. It might sound like common sense, but it didn't really hit me until a few months ago that we were about to start this thing from scratch. Hanukkah, Christmas--the whole shebang. That tree and those ornaments waiting at my parents house had been cultivated over several years. The traditions had been brewing and settling in for mine and my sister's lifetimes.

This is the first year that Jason and I will be in our own place on Christmas Eve. Because both Jason and I are still children at heart, I think, even though we've been together for seven years--we've lived together before this family--we still always went to our parents' houses to stay the night on December 24.

Yesterday we took Adelyn to brave the crowds shopping. We bought a Christmas tree, dozens of ornaments. We ordered embroidered stockings. We bought peppermint-scented candles and a copy of 'Twas the Night before Christmas. When we were little my dad read this to me and my sister every Christmas Eve. Now it's Addy's turn.

(Just a side note: I am the most Christmas-loving Jew you will ever come across. I have a beautiful hand-made menorah that my friend Alex got me years ago, and it will be lit each night for Hanukkah this year. But I'll be damned if I'm going to forsake the gorgeous glow of a Christmas tree and the excitement of giving and getting presents on Christmas morning.)

And then we came home, put Adelyn down for a nap, poured some Eggnog we'd just bought at the liquor store, turned on our newly-purchased Christmas music (The Hotel Cafe Presents Winter Songs--best holiday album ever--even featuring Fiona Apple singing Frosty the Snowman) and decorated our tree.

The traditions have to start somewhere. And for our first year, I think we're doing pretty well.

A staple of this household.

Of course in the best picture I snap of her she would be grabbing onto the beer ornament.