We made it through Christmas!

Every year it comes faster and faster. It builds to this glorious day of gluttony and gifts and then it's all over. Just. like. that.

I think a lot of holiday stress actually lies in keeping up with traditions, or creating new traditions, or spending time thinking about how traditions are so attractive and magical as an idea but carrying them out...all of them...can be a daunting task.

I definitely struggle with this whole incorporating the old with the new. I want to pass on traditions to my children that I remember when I was a kid. Like we always hung stocking wherever (we never really had a fireplace) and the stockings would magically appear, courtesy of Santa, at the foot of our bed full of gifts. We'd open those first.

Or every Christmas breakfast always had a place for Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls. It was just our thing.

But then you hear about other families and their traditions and you're like - Hey, that sounds cool! Maybe we could do that!

And we all know what Pinterest can do with our idle time. All of the sudden, if we don't incorporate glitter-oatmeal reindeer food, which we've never ever done before, into our Christmas traditions IT JUST WON'T BE CHRISTMAS!

Cut to me, outside, in front of my house, with my three year old daughter at nine o'clock at night sprinkling glitter-oatmeal reindeer food across the gravel on Christmas Eve.

Yes, I'm a sucker for new traditions.

But in order not to go completely bat crap crazy, I have to let some things go. Like this year we didn't get to see the light festival our city has every year. I didn't do a lot of gift baking. Everyone seems to get baked goods for the holidays and half of it ends up in the garbage. Don't lie. You know it does.

We also didn't get to see any snow. A local mall here has a snowfall event through December where they bring in real snow. Stop laughing! This is what we have to do to see snow in southern Arizona.

Since I've had my own Christmas tree I always decorated it with ornaments that I've had since I was little. They were barely hanging on! But last year, after years of secretly wanting a white tree, I took the plunge! Along with the white tree, I ditched about three quarters of my old ornaments. I didn't throw them away. But it was time for a change.

I had to let some traditions go in order to add new ones.

What new tradition did you begin? What did you ditch?