This whole 25X advent calendar has been about trying to capture or describe some of our favorite Christmas traditions, because this season is all about honoring traditions: ornaments, cookies, Christmas cards, holiday movies and festive $6 Starbucks drinks.  So much of Christmas is wrapped up (PUN!) in trying to relive, or at least finding comfort in repeating, events that tap into a sense of nostalgia, usually with the people closest to us.

My mom and dad sent me the ornament above as a Christmas present, plucked right from their own tree.  Passing this little 25-year-old porcelain Santa Mickey onto a new generation, so to speak.  I teared up as I held it in my hands, remembering all those Christmases at my parents’ house, gathered around their tree adorned with so many ornaments.  It was my childhood, right there, in a little cartoon mouse.

Lance and I wish all of you the Very Merriest Christmas, and hope you’re all honoring your favorite Christmas traditions today.  Share your love and goodwill with your family, however you define it: near and far, by-blood, -marriage, or -Twitter.

Tell old stories and make new ones.  I’m sure that time us kids got drunk before church, or when my brother-in-law Showcase Showgirl’ed his mini-14 semi-automatic rifle before unwrapping gifts, will be just some of the Christmas 2012 anecdotes we’ll be sharing for years to come.