Traditions

They change, don't they.  Traditions.   And sometimes, that's ok.  And sometimes, like now, it really isn't ok.  Or maybe the times around the tradition have changed.  We are feeling that quite a bit this Christmas season at our house.  And no one is happy.
Obviously, we don't write letters to Santa anymore.  And we don't get letters from the Elves.  We have stopped putting out cookies and carrots.  We don't read a new Christmas story any more though I still buy the book each year.  Those traditions quietly fell to the wayside as the kids grew.
But this year has been different.  Not only have the kids gotten older, but two of them have moved away.  And the third one got a job.  Adjustments had to be made.  It all started with Thanksgiving Eve.  Normally, i bake cookies while the kids and Danny play Monopoly.  I had a horrible headache and the kitchen was a disaster.   No one seemed particularly motivated to clean it up or get the game or do anything for that matter.  Except Jacob.  He was ready to play and was so frustrated that no one else was.  We all went to see the Muppet Movie instead and may have started a new tradition of going to the movies.  But who know what next year will bring.  The next tradition to be shot down was putting the tree up the day after Thanksgiving.  I worked during the day and Jacob worked that evening.  He then worked Saturday evening as well and the girls left on Sunday.  So the house sat treeless for a week until I couldn't take it anymore and started setting it up today. 
I had a good plan.  I cleaned the living room while Jacob was working and Danny was sleeping.  Then I started assembling the tree.  I thought that I could have it mostly up before Jacob got home and then we could decorate it.  I hated that he was missing out on having the tree up just because the girls were gone.  Or maybe that was how I was feeling.  Either way, I was excited to finally have it up.
Jacob was not.  It was not ok to put the tree up with out Ashlyn and Hayley.  The last time, and only time that we did not decorate the tree as a family was the year that Danny was in Iraq.  Jacob pointed this out to me today.  He wanted to wait until the girls were home from school.  But we are going away for that first weekend so we would not have the tree up until the 20th.  Yeah, that is not going to happen.  I will already be 12 days behind as it is.  And I did not spend several years of traveling about to amass a super cool ornament collection just to leave it in the basement for another two weeks.
So, traditions change.  That's a fact.  And they will keep changing as family moves away and grows and dies.  We have to accept that and do whatever it takes to make the Christmas present a happy one.