This holiday season is going to look quite a bit different. Many of the traditions we all love may be a tweaked a bit. This is my favorite time of year, but I’m trying to be optimistic (I’m a hopeless optimistic, I can’t help myself). While we may not do all the same community traditions and we may not have the same big holiday parties, there are still so many traditions that we will still be able to do.

In our little family we have already decorated our house. I was able to hold off until after Thanksgiving, but it wasn’t easy. We’re also about to start our annual advent calendar tradition. One we have come to love and look forward too. This year two of us are doing lego calendars and one of us has a whiskey calendar. I’ll let you guess who is doing which.

I’ve already purchased our Christmas pajamas and need to get something festive for our new kitten to wear too so she can match her big brothers. Once I can get them outfitted I’ll try to get a picture of all three to them.

I know we will still write a list of Christmas movies to watch and spend many chilly nights snuggled on the couching working through that list. We will do the same with our holiday book list. And we will drive the city neighborhoods looking for our favorite house decorations with warm cups of hot chocolate.

We won’t have our big family gatherings this year or fancy office parties, but the three of us will take the extra time that gives us to create some new traditions. I’m not sure what those will be, but I’m a bit excited to find out.

How are your traditions both changing and staying the same this year?