Tradition!

One of our favorite movies is "Fiddler on the Roof". We love the music, the dancing, and especially the opening number where everyone is singing about the Traditions of their village while doing things like chopping meat and kneading bread in time to the music. And in our family, we love the idea of traditions as well. Traditions can be the yarn that knit our families together in special ways. One of my favorite books on this subject is Noel Piper's "Treasuring God in our Traditions." She has some great thoughts there about the why of traditions, and learning how to focus our traditions around our Lord.

One tradition John and I started early in our relationship was to go to a bed and breakfast for our anniversary. We had spent our honeymoon at a B&B, so it seemed like a natural extension. I will never forget our first anniversary, when we were poor and I was still in school, and John surprised me by driving me to northern Minnesota and taking me to one night at a bed and breakfast when I had no hope that our budget could support such a thing. Since then, we tried to get away each year, at least for a night. On our 7th wedding anniversary, we also had no hope of continuing the tradition since that was the day that we moved overseas! However, United Airlines had other plans and since we missed our flight due to mechanical difficulties, they put us up in a hotel in Los Angeles so we got to celebrate our anniversary there!

Here in Asia, it's been a bit challenging to continue the tradition since at first there wasn't anyone to leave the kids with, and also there aren't any bed and breakfasts here, but this year is different! Our friends are going to watch the girls--all three girls!--so that we can get away to a nearby city for the night and have some time to ourselves. I think after our busy Christmas season we will really appreciate the time to be quiet and rest and just enjoy the time together without three little munchkins around!

So tonight I'm packing two little backpacks for the girls to take to their friends' house; the girls are so excited because the backpacks have Minnie Mouse on them and were Christmas gifts. The fact that Mommy and Daddy are going away is tempered by being able to use the new Minnie backpacks! Amazing the things that cheer up our children!

And, amazing the things that cheer up mommy and daddy too! We are looking forward to our trip! Stay tuned . . . when we get back I have Christmas photos and Clara Anne's birthday photos to share with you!