Christmas has always been my favorite time of year - a time that is steeped in so many traditions. Growing up, we never lived near any extended family. Unless we made a trip to spend time with either set of grandparents, we celebrated with just the four of us (my parents, sister and myself). Because of that, my parents made every effort to create traditions that were just ours.
For as long as I can remember, there was a rule that we were not allowed to leave our bedrooms until mom and dad had already been down to turn on the Christmas lights and start breakfast. And then, my sister and I were only allowed to open our stockings while they finished the morning prep - no presents until we were all gathered together. For many years, Santa would leave us each a giant gingerbread man (cookie) in our stockings so we had something to munch on while we opened presents.
When we moved to Goffstown, NH my parents started a new tradition for our family. We built that house ourselves, and my dad insisted that we find a mason who could build us a beehive oven with our fireplace. In case you're not familiar with that style, there was the large open fireplace and then there were two doors next to it. The bottom door was where you would build a smaller fire, and the door above that had a cooking slate in it. So, my mom created a tradition that every Christmas morning, we would all take a turn at kneading the dough for a whole wheat molasses bread - and then it would be baked in the beehive oven.
Since leaving my parents house, I have not created any traditions of my own. When I married Matt, though, I wanted to find ways to make the holiday our own kind of special. Not having children around to help build the magic for the Christmas holiday season, it's been very important for me to find a way to create something special for us. Up until last year, I haven't been very successful.
We're at a point where we typically buy what we want throughout the year. So, when Christmas rolls around it's challenging to identify something unique and personal to get each other. A couple years ago, I realized that I didn't want to buy items just to have gifts under the tree (unless I was able to find a truly special gift). After the holidays were done in 2021, I proposed something new for 2022. We could still buy gifts for each other if we wanted to, but the main Christmas "gift" was going to be choosing a vacation for 2023. The way that I envisioned this working was that we would both add vacation ideas to a jar throughout the year. On Christmas Day, we would select a random piece of paper out of that jar and then start planning whatever was listed.
The way it actually played out that first year looked a little different than I pictured. Matt got to draw the winning slip - it was one he added - "fishing trip to Alaska". After reading what was written he said that we couldn't do that trip because it was too expensive. I told him that wasn't how I pictured this working (and I really hate being told something costs too much, because there are always ways we can modify a trip to be less expensive). After a bit of discussion, and maybe seeing what the next option might be, we agreed to go with that original theme for our 2023 trip.
In theory, we would have taken a good chunk of time to explore what a "fishing trip in Alaska" might look like. Apparently, though, it was something Matt had been thinking about for a while so he had some clear thoughts on what should be covered in this trip. Ultimately, we decided on a 9-day adventure in mid-July. We would spend time in Anchorage, Seward and Homer. In hindsight, I'm glad he had figured certain things out already - I had no clue how far out we would have to book some of the adventures! Since I'm willing to just about anything in Alaska, I really didn't have any arguments with Matt's ideas. The only stipulation I provided was that we would connect with a family friend in Anchorage since we were flying in and out of that airport.
Here's what we ended up having for a timeline:
July 14th: fly into Anchorage, pick up a rental car and stay with my (new) friend, Kris.
July 15th: morning hike in the rain with Kris. Afternoon exploration of Anchorage and lunch at 49th State Brewing.
July 16th: drive down to Seward, stopping at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. We checked into our Airbnb, which was located centrally so we could walk almost everywhere.
July 17th: our primary mission for this day was to hike to the Harding Ice Field. It wasn't a fun hike, but the views were incredible and the ice field was definitely something to see.
July 18th: check out the Alaska SeaLife Center (puffins!) before heading over to Homer. Another cute Airbnb, but a little more remote with moose walking through the yard and bald eagles in the trees. We drove down Homer Spit to figure out where we'd be going for the next two mornings.
July 19th: Alaska Bear Adventures flight to Katmai to see the bears. My first time in a small plane! Spectacular views, incredibly close proximity to bears and a perfect summer day.
July 20th: Another early morning - this time for a fishing charter to see if we could catch some halibut. Sitting on the water, in the fog, listening to the whales breach, catching all manner of sea creatures (skate, shark, rockfish, turtles, etc.) before finally finding the halibut - a surreal experience.
July 21st: collect our fish (packaged for airline transportation) then headed back to Anchorage. Tried "fish on a stick" - fried halibut on a stick...so delicious!
July 22nd: walk the Coastal Trail, check out a little more of Anchorage, hike Thunderbird Falls trail. Dinner was at Moose's Tooth Pub & Pizzeria (unique and tasty pizza!)
July 23rd: early flight back home
While this was not an inexpensive trip, it was worth every penny invested! And the memories that Matt & I made together will last so much longer than almost anything (material) we could have given each other for Christmas. We both agreed that this "Christmas Trip" idea is something that we can try again this year, and I'm excited to see what adventure we will create! Hopefully, this will be something we continue for years to come.
What do you think about this idea? Is it something you might try for your family? What are your favorite Christmas traditions that you have? I would love to hear your stories!
Comments