Traditions

Over the last few Christmases, Joe and I have been thinking about Christmas traditions. Both of our families have Christmas traditions that just mean Christmas to us and we are eager to carry those on and incorporate those into our own little family. And, we are excited to create some of our own Christmas traditions. We've really had a chance to do that since we've moved to Edinburgh and have been so far from family over the holidays. We've started a few, but I thought I'd share my favorite with you.

For several reasons, Joe and I have decided to put some parameters on our gift giving to each other at Christmas and our new tradition has sort of sprung from those "rules." Last year we agreed on an amount of money we could spend and decided to spend a few hours on Princes Street shopping for each other. We walked over together, split up, and agreed to meet back at a set time. Part of the fun was keeping an eye out for the other and making sure we weren't discovered. When we met back up, we headed over to the German market and had a German lunch.

This year, having enjoyed the last so much, we decided to do something similar--shopping together, but seperately, and doing a special activity afterwards together. After our shopping (where I accidently ran into Joe in a shop), we made our way to The Filmhouse to catch an old Cary Grant Christmas movie. It was so fun to see this old black and white film, that neither of us had ever seen, on the big screen. It was really great. If you've never seen The Bishop's Wife, I suggest you add it to your list, and that you check out this "trailer:"



After two really enjoyable years of shopping and playing, we've agreed to make this a permanent fixture in the Rivera Christmas traditions. I know it's long past Christmas, but I'm curious--what are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?