My Arizona Christmases; What Are Your Holiday Memories?

Growing up in a small town in northwestern Wisconsin, I had many wonderful Christmases with my parents and two younger brothers in our 150-year-old drafty, creaky, lovable Victorian home.

Every Christmas Eve, we'd go to the candlelight service at church; every Christmas morning, we'd eat Pillsbury cinnamon rolls and open presents before hosting extended family for a big Christmas dinner. Even after graduating in 2001, I still came home for Christmas every year.

Then, seven years ago, everything changed.

I was 21, married and living in Portland, MI when my parents sold the house I grew up in, left my hometown of Hudson, WI and moved to Scottsdale, AZ. Suddenly, the town I'd grown up in was no longer "home," and Christmas, for the first time I could remember, wouldn't be in our Wisconsin house with my extended family.

We came down to visit for a week around the holidays that first year after they moved, and while it was odd at first to stay in an unfamiliar place where there were palm trees instead of snow, we quickly made new memories and traditions. Instead of staying in and playing board games, we opted to head out to play outdoor mini golf. Instead of playing video games, we turned on the pool heater and went for a dip under the cloudless Arizona sky.

And after my son was born in 2005, he joined in our Arizona Christmas traditions with us, picking up his first putter at barely two years old for a round of pre-Christmas outdoor putt-putt.

In the end, though, where and how we celebrate each year doesn't seem to matter, as long as we have each other. So while I will always cherish the Christmas traditions of my childhood, the new traditions we've developed are just as precious, and I am thankful just to be able to spend time with my family during this wonderful time of year.

So we're wondering: What are your holiday traditions? How have they changed over the years? Let us know in comments below!