The Co-Founders' Christmas Traditions
Cameron
Family traditions for the holidays are wonderful, but for our family we tend to focus less on doing the same ‘something’ each year and more on finding new appreciation since each year is different.
Being a Military family means you never know where you’ll spend it or who you’ll be lucky enough to spend it with. Being far from home means holidays look different every year. One thing I’ve come to hold true is that holidays are about your people. Even if some years are bittersweet, we are reminded of the true meaning of the holiday season—gratefulness and not taking the time you do have together for granted.
One tradition we try to keep year after year is going to pick out a live tree at a local stand down the road the day after Thanksgiving.
This year the kids and I will have to do it without my husband, which means we’ll need help getting it off the lot, in the truck, and into the house. We, just like all Military families celebrating without a loved one, will find a way to get it done. It is hard and we miss him, but this season we will be reminded of what we are grateful for, we will know who we wish were there to be part of the festivities, and we will be sure to hug his neck a little tighter when he comes home.
“Being a Military family means you never know where you’ll spend it or who you’ll be lucky enough to spend it with. Being far from home means holidays look different every year. One thing I’ve come to hold true is that holidays are about your people. Even if some years are bittersweet, we are reminded of the true meaning of the holiday season—gratefulness and not taking the time you do have together for granted.”
LISA
One of my earliest childhood memories of Christmas was traveling to my grandmother's house. It was a long drive through winter roads to a remote town in North Montana. The most vibrant of my memories is hand making kolache with her the day after Thanksgiving and again on Christmas eve. She made a matching apron for my sister and I to wear while carrying on the generational tradition. I still hear my five-year-old self asking, “Grandma, where’s my cooking clothes” and she would pull it out of a drawer in the kitchen, help me put it on properly, and pull out the stool so I could see the rising dough set near the warm oven. The patience required in making the dough and waiting between the rest and rise made the process all the more exciting. In these cherished moments of sharing time with family there is this undeniable connection back to the many generations that had this exact moment with their family, and imagined the future generations experiencing the same moment. Although I didn’t know my grandmother’s grandmother, and I may not meet my children’s grandchildren, I will continue the tradition in hopes it will connect our future generations with the past.
Last year my grandmother passed away at 100 years old, just after my daughter was able to meet her. This past Christmas I cherished her memory and tried to give a gift that ensured this tradition went on for many to come. I was fortunate enough to have her original, hand written, copy of the family kolache recipe, and had it engraved into a set of cutting boards. Each of the women in my family was gifted one to ensure the tradition lives on.
“When it comes to my family tradition of making kolache with my grandmother, in the cherished moments of sharing time with family there is this undeniable connection back to the many generations that had this exact moment with their family, and imagined the future generations experiencing the same moment. Although I didn’t know my grandmother’s grandmother, and I may not meet my children’s grandchildren, I will continue the traditions put in place before me in hopes it will connect our future generations with the past.”
