Family traditions.

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My husband went on a business trip to WY for a couple of days. When he came home, he brought me this:

It's a delicious loaf of multi-grain bread baked completely from scratch. It's also a family tradition...

My Dad started this tradition many moons ago, when I was still modeling my very first pair of underwear, the most fashionable in the area (after all, my Dad did work for a textile factory back then). He was also going to school. But in order to support his pretty broke family, he had to work two jobs. So he decided to be an off-campus student getting correspondence assignments from a University in a different city. He was studying to be a lawyer.

Even though he would get most of his assignments by mail, twice a year he had to go to school and spend a month there trying to pass a bazillion tests. That city was about 8 hours by train from where we lived but it had one of the best correspondence programs in the country (he did become a very decent lawyer...in all the meanings of the word). But that meant travel, rent and other expenses you face when you stay somewhere for a whole month. My parents were poor. They were broke.

It was before we even had a home phone, so the only connection that my parents had were handwritten letters and rare phone calls to the neighbors. It was a long seven years (that's how long it took my Dad to finally finish college), especially for my Mom.

That's why my Dad always wanted to bring her something special as a token of his love. But because they had very little money, all he could come up with was a loaf of bread... Every six month he would scavenger the bakeries in that other city to find a new kind of bread we hadn't tried before.

Soon we were looking forward to this special treat. And that's how the tradition was born. Even now, many years later, when we can easily afford other small tokens and souvenirs, the "loaf of bread" is still always there.

And now we're sharing this tradition with our kids... And they surely enjoy it :)

Do you have any traditions that are very dear to your family? Even if it might seem like nothing worth mentioning to others?

Please, do share :) I love to learn about other families' traditions!

In a pre-Christmas mood...

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I told you yesterday that I'm finally getting into a Christmas mood. Here's the proof :)

Arent's these two little guys so cute enjoying a moment there :)

Our tree is finally up! It's the first year since we got married that we didn't have it all up in it's beauty the day after Thanksgiving. I couldn't wait any longer!! We spent a few hours yesterday while listening to holiday music on Pandora. You might remember that we have a special tradition in our family that was started by Hubby's uncle. He used to be one of the artists for Hallmark before retiring and every year he would send my husband and each of his siblings an ornament (many of which were created by him). By the time we met, my man had a huge box of fun and special ornaments to put on our first tree.

We decided to continue with this tradition - we give our boys an ornament that has a special meaning every year. It could be serious or fun. Like this year we got this ornament for one of our kids because it was their first time to go to Disneyland (and also because I have a secret crush on Mater :)

We also added another very special ornament to our tree this Christmas:

My SIL got it for us last Christmas in memory of Hubby's sweet Grandma who passed away in September of 2012. We miss her a lot and it's such a sweet reminder.

I'm glad to be done with decorating! Now it's time to start on Christmas baking... I could really use some sugary treats right now...

Do you have any special holiday traditions in your home?

And October turned out to be the best month of the year...

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And the winner is... The Quest!! She guessed it right :) This picture was taken on beautiful (though slightly windy) Redondo Beach in LA, California. It was my first time to see the ocean...

But it wasn't the only thing we saw. How about this picture:

Yes, we are in "The happiest place on earth" aka Disneyland... Before you start thinking that we might've gone insane going on vacation while my husband is unemployed, I have to explain. We did go on a vacation but it was a "paid one". My BIL arranged an awesome "job assignment" for Hubby. He had to deliver a prop, for a commercial shoot, all the way to California and then take it back almost a week later. Because I've never been to California (and because my husband has been promising to take me to the ocean for the past 8 years...), we decided to tag along. The company was paying for food, gas to and from and accommodations plus another $200 for every day they needed us/him to stay in LA, and when my husband's amazing family found out that we were planning to go there, they got together and presented us with the means to purchase Park Hopper tickets to spend three days in Disneyland and California Adventure:

It was so much fun!!! The kids had a blast and enjoyed every minute of it. The weather was beautiful - not too sunny or hot but warm enough to wear a T-shirt. It was more than we could ever hope for...

We also spent a day in LA going to Beverly Hills, Hollywood Boulevard, even a Russian store (there are a bunch there and the food is delicious!). Of course, I took a picture of the famous "Hollywood sign":

There were also some fun characters to take pictures with on Hollywood Boulevard:

It was supposed to be a picture of the little guy but as you can see the Oldest Kid in the family just couldn't resist :)

This year we planned to have a family vacation for just the 4 of us and were saving money for it but due to unemployment it never happened. And this trip was that dream come true... Thanks to so many blessings in our life. Including unemployment (who would've thought I'd ever say that!!) because we would never get an opportunity like this if Hubby was working...

But to make this month even better and to tell you something I was dying to share for a whole week, my husband finally got a job!!!! Not in California (sorry, Nan :) but it's a wonderful position with a  well-known non-profit with great benefits and salary (about $5000 a year more than the salary and top bonus he could make in his previous employment). Almost 4 months later our prayers were answered, and after a very long and hard September we got an amazing October! Life is so good, it's amazing!!

And to put a cherry on top, we have a tradition in our family started by my Dad many moons ago to buy local bread wherever we go. This is what I got this time :)

I do have a soft spot for Mickey... I should be back to regular posting from now on and can't wait to catch up on everything I missed in your life :)