Family traditions

Christmas 2009. It's Olivia's first Christmas and a lot is at stake here.

First of all, this is the beginning of our family traditions. Last year I emailed a group of friends and asked about family traditions for Christmas. I was already thinking of our baby's first Christmas. And I'm always amazed about the rules and strict traditions of Japanese culture. Everyone does basically the same things for the same holidays. They eat the same food. They do the same activities. And Americans seem a bit more hodge-podge than that.

So back to family traditions.

First we took some of Benny's family traditions. We went to candlelight service at the chapel on Christmas Eve. We made and ate oyster stew, Benny's mom's recipe.

Then we took some of my family's traditions. Olivia used the Advent calendar I've had since I was a child (my dear friend, Irene made it for me). It was Olivia's countdown to Dec. 25 and I think she enjoyed moving the mouse to a new pocket each day. And we took a family photo on Christmas Eve.

Then I thought about this red Christmas journal that my mom had and would write down the details of every Christmas. For example, you write what the weather was like that day, what you ate, what you did and what your favorite gift was. As an adult, it's amusing to go back to read about our family Christmases (is that a word) from the past 25 years. I wonder if my mom continues to write in this journal. Or if it all filled in and forgotten?

In any case, I really want to have one to start documenting the Volkmann family Christmases, so I ordered one on Amazon. I'm hoping to have it in 10 days.

Two traditions we started doing this year, we stole from other families. Is that bad?

I believe it was Shelly who first told me about the tradition of new pajamas for everyone in the family given out in Christmas Eve. And I believe that Benny's mom has given new pajamas to the grandchildren occasionally on Dec. 24. So I LOVE this tradition. The idea of sleeping snug in new soft pajamas is better than a plate full of cookies with a glass of milk. So Olivia received red Christmas pajamas.

You can't quite see it, but there are reindeer with antlers on them. And on her chest it says "Santa's Helper." Adorable.

And finally we decided to start a 3 present limit on gifts. I first heard about this from his sister Colleen. She has a friend whose children receive only 3 gifts from Santa because the wise men brought 3 gifts to baby Jesus. Again, I LOVE this idea and couldn't wait to start it with our children.

But once shopping started in December, this self-imposed limit was much harder than I ever imagined. There was so much I wanted to buy Olivia because of course she "needed" it.

Instead I waged my options, researched Parents magazine articles and customer reviews on Amazon.com. Olivia's three gifts were: a doll (her first), a set of wooden blocks and a baby band set complete with a drum (which is lost in the mail somewhere over the Pacific Ocean and still has not arrived.)

Benny received a yellow Orion T-shirt, a Japanese stamp that has Volkmann written in Kanji and "Daddy Time" gift certificates that he can redeem for hours to play ultimate Frisbee or study for his professional engineer exam.

I received a sweatshirt (that I picked out), Ryukyu glass chopstick rests (that Benny picked out!) and a picture frame for a family picture.

When I was researching this three gift idea, I came across a mother used this idea and made special holiday gift tags to identify this gifts. So even within the 3 gifts there is a special meaning for each gift.

If I make these permanent gift tags as a Christmas craft project, would Tammy be proud of me?

But we have one tradition left undecided: When to open our gifts? My family opens them on Christmas Eve and Benny's family opens their presents on Christmas Day.

Any opinions on this one?