Family Tradition

I am so inspired by Ashley Wren to start our own family traditions, not only for the Christmas holiday, but all year long. Cooper is old enough now to really get involved and enjoy what we do, so I want to start doing things he'll remember fondly when he's grown...maybe even continue them with his family someday. We'll go look at Christmas light displays, we'll go to the parade, I've bought Gingerbread cookie mix (fingers-crossed), we'll take a family pic by the tree...I'm working on finding more to call our own. As he gets older I'm sure I'll adapt traditions and make new ones. I'm just really excited about this Christmas.

We had a family day out this past Saturday. A whole day with no work, we had 'Daddy' all to ourselves. We went to Crossett, AR...about 35 mins from where we live now. My mom was from there and is buried in a little cemetary in the country. I hadn't been to her grave site in awhile and felt drawn to visit. So, we first went to WalMart, found some purple poinsettias for her. They were having pics w/Santa made by their 1-hour photo studio. Santa walked up to Cooper while we were checking out. I figured Coop might be afraid, but he wasn't. They chatted and we follwed him over and had Coop's pic made. (Hey that's a tradition!)

After that we headed to the local city park & zoo. It amazes me that they have a zoo...the city population is like 6,ooo (13,000 if you count outside the city limits, too). Cooper had never been there, so we walked through the zoo first. He was in awe. He had been to a zoo when he was 1 and in a stroller, but I know he doesn't remember any of that. This time he was walking (or running rather) up to the cages/fences. He loved it. I think his Daddy had just as much fun as it was his first visit, too.

When we finished our walk through the zoo, we went next door to the city park. Cooper was so brave. He normally won't go in the the slides that are tubes...only the open ones. He's also kinda of skiddish about those. Not this time...I almost couldn't keep up with him. He climbed the steps alone (well, I was spotting him from behind)...then jumped on the slide and was gone! No coaxing him to go or anything. Then he was up and climbing for another go.

We went for a bite to eat then headed to the cemetary. It's about a 15 min drive out of town, so I saved it for last. Figured by then Coop would be worn out and would nap. All in all it was a great day...little sad at the end, but being with my family made it all better.