New Christmas Tradition?

Recently, I had a Saturday where my husband wasn't home and instead of just staying home I decided to take the kids to the mountains instead. 

The plan was that we could gather cedar and pine branches to make Christmas swags. It took us about an hour to get ourselves out of the house, on the road, and up the hill. I got to drive my husband's truck, which I love! My girls sat in the back of the truck bed once we hit the gravel road and had a blast, while my toddler sat up front with me. 

I felt instant happiness and joy as I headed into the woods which is one of my favorite places. I also felt a little panic when I realized I had zero cell reception if anything went wrong, it was just me and the kids.

Bumping along the muddy roads, I saw a smoking pile of logging debris that had previously been burning. I hadn't brought anything to make a fire so I decided to scoop up the hot coals and put them on wet bark in the bed to start a fire once we reached the top (moving my children to up front with me for safety reasons). 

We drove for awhile before making it to the top of the mountain and a picking place to stop and "make camp" that overlooked the forest covered mountains. I immediately got to work on my fire, to find that my coals had DIED on the drive up. I located one large coal with a speck of a live coal on it. Out of that, with lots of blowing and fanning and my girls diligent help, we made a blazing fire that didn't go out the entire time we were up there.

Next, I went around trimming foliage while my girls climbed young trees and decided to swing back and forth on the tops of them. My son got some clippers and joined me in snipping at the trees.

We played, talked, sat, and just enjoyed out time. It was a fun, family adventure and a peaceful and joyful time. The next day we made our Christmas swags after church, my girls giving theirs to the neighbors and mine going up on our door. 

I think we're going to make a new Christmas tradition of going to the mountains and getting swag materials. Do you have any new traditions, especially with this year's changes? I'd love to hear about them in the comments below.

Merry Christmas all you wonderful Mamas, I hope your having a fun filled season despite covid.

Much love,

-Joy