Matt and I have a longstanding tradition of going to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert each year (a fabulous—free!—way to quickly get into the real spirit of Christmas) and stopping by Leatherby’s before.
Leatherby’s is “our” place ever since we first played hooky one day and sought it out (because I’d eaten there a lot as a kid but then it moved, but Matt and I found it one day together one summer when we’d skived off some other duties we were supposed to do.)
Although traditions can seem kind of stressful sometimes (because there’s that pressure to do the same thing, year after year), there is a certain power in having some holiday traditions that are more or less fixed in place. It gives stability to one’s life, you could say.
Would you agree?
I do like mixing traditions up a little bit though (so that they don’t get TOO stale or predictable), so we usually try to make each year unique by inviting different people into the tradition with us. This year, our good friends Kayla and Sam were nice enough to join us for enormous sundaes and the best fries you’ll ever eat before we all headed off to the Conference Center for the concert.
Later on this week, we’re participating in another of our newlywed Christmas traditions—making a big ol’ Christmas dinner (that usually consists of pot roast or ham) the night before we play Santa and give each other presents (which, coincidentally, is usually a few days before the actual holiday since we usually travel down to Bountiful to spend Christmas with our families.)
To mix that up, we’re inviting some friends from up here to join in the fun (and hopefully turn it into a game night as well!).
Do you sometimes feel pressure to keep on doing the same traditions each year? Or do you consciously seek out ways to make each year a unique experience?
