Packages, Ribbons, Boxes and Bags

When Claudia chose "Traditions" as our theme this month I began thinking of all of the traditions my family has. Taking my little guy out to lunch on the last day of school, Father's Day picnics with the whole family, the German Chocolate birthday cake that I'm presented with on every birthday, and home-made cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. (hmmmm, I see a food trend here..)

Traditions can be big or small, decades old, or brand new. It is going to be really fun this month peeking into everyone's family photo albums to see what your traditions are. I invite you today to peek into mine as I share with you a long standing family tradition.

As far back as I can remember, my Mom, Grandmother, Aunts, Cousins, and Sisters and I, have gone on a big Christmas shopping outing. At first I was too young. That was one of the big things about this shopping trip. You had to be of a certain age. My older sister was a senior in high school when she was first "invited" on the shopping trip. Of course it caused some friction when a few years later, I was invited when I was only a sophomore in high school! :)

Family members have passed on, some have moved too far away to participate, and other issues have stopped some from shopping with us. Cough, cough.  But we still plug along.  This year my Mom, and my younger sister Deb and I continued our annual tradition. Never before have I taken photos of this big shopping day. However, since I knew that this was our November theme, I thought ahead and captured just a few moments from our day.

We usually start at one of the big discount department stores and then move to some favorite small businesses, and of course, the mall.

After several hours of shopping we stop for lunch and enjoy some good food - that may not be so good for us....  As we wait for our meals we pull out our lists, crossing off what we've found and figuring out our plan of attack for the afternoon.

Even though we shopped early this year (in October), never fear....there were plenty of Christmas decorations out already, and yes, even holiday music was playing in some of the stores. (too early!)

After many hours of walking, shopping, giggling, and sharing ideas, we are done. Well almost. We always, always stop for a hot cup of coffee before we head home.

(There may or may not have been a couple of donuts eaten here also.. :)

It's always a fun, productive day, and a good jump start to our holiday shopping, and I hope to continue this tradition for many years to come.

Please share your traditions with us - big or small. If you don't have a photo of your tradition to share in our flickr group, be sure to leave a comment and tell us your story. We'd love to read about it!