The Thanksgiving holiday is just a few short weeks away.  Our mailbox today filled with catalogs to tempt even the most modest gift buyer!

Our girls know that the Halloween decorations will be down this weekend and maybe we can tempt their  Dad to start the Christmas/Holiday ones for the outside of our home.  The girls can’t wait for Thanksgiving as we get our first visit the morning after from our Elf on the Shelf Earl and our family room Christmas tree will be put together and decorated.  Not too long after we will begin the baking of cookies and treats to share with friends and family during the holiday season.

I can remember when I was growing up getting dressed up  and going into NYC with my grandparents to see the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center and to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.  When our daughters were little, I decided we need to start our own family tradition of shows and experiences for the Holiday Season. So we dressed in our Holiday best and as a family we joined friends and rode on the Holiday Train of Lights, another time we headed into San Francisco we visited the Christmas Tree in Union Square. We have also gathered with friends all bundled up for a ride on the Christmas Fantasy Carousel in Tilden Park.Each year we have tried different Holiday performances.

The following year we attended the Family Holiday Music at Davies Symphony Hall with our regular Holiday trips as a family to the Tilden Park Christmas Fantasy Carousel, a trip on the Niles Canyon Holiday Train of Lights and a visit to San Francisco to see the Christmas Tree at Union Square.

There was one year that we went to see the national tour of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes! Both our girls sat there barely blinking while absorbing and watching the dancing, kicking, listening to the music and singing!

It was only 4 years ago when we took our girls to see the San Francisco Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker. We purchased our tickets through a special Facebook offer and had orchestra seats for $25 each! It was after that first performance that they performed their own version in our home and finally asked to begin learning ballet themselves.

As our girls have gotten older we have added ice skating at the local outdoor rink, driving through the many local neighborhoods to see the Christmas light displays and attending our own town’s tree lighting event.

Once again this year, we have our tickets for the performance of the Nutcracker by The San Francisco Ballet.  All that we do for the Holidays is added by each of our girls performing at The Lesher Center with The Ballet Joyeux in a Christmas ballet.  Tim and I will be in the theater to watch our girls perform.

I realized today that I have tried many different things to make a singular Holiday tradition for us as a family and that is our tradition.  We are all looking forward to what the Holidays have in store for us this year!