Paper Jump, a New Year's Tradition.

    The growth and evolution of a family tradition is an amazing thing isn't it? Our family has a special little tradition, born Romyn's first Christmas, which has blossomed into a full blown New Year's Day event which we call... PAPER JUMP!
    Now, due to my extremely unorganized digital photo collection (Hrm, maybe I should resolve to sort that out this year.) I cannot share with you our first paper photo session, when on Christmas Day I shoved a screaming six month old Romyn into a pile of wrapping paper, hoping for an adorable keepsake photo. I vaguely remember him eating some paper.... maybe? And I can't tell you that we've taken pictures every year, because the Christmas my husband was deployed, and when I was 9 months pregnant with B, and sick with the flu, I'm pretty sure I didn't. But I can tell you, that somehow, over the years, just wanting to get a cute photo of my boys with all their Christmas wrapping paper, has turned into our favorite family tradition....  and last year it even earned itself a name.

    PAPER JUMP!

    So, here's how it goes, on Christmas day, the boys like to crumple up all their gift wrap, and toss it into a bin for points, which I then push out of the way for a few days. (My husband and I used to do this before we had kids when I would save wrapping to pack up all our holiday decor. Seeing it again next Christmas always made me happy.) Since our boys are so busy playing with new toys, it's alright to leave this very tempting box of paper forgotten for a bit, while I pack away all our festive chachkies and clean house for the new year. Our boys are too little to stay up on New Year's Eve, so they look forward to celebrating  by "playing in the paper" first thing on New Year's Day.

 

      This year, New Year's Day was gloomy, and my boys were not feeling it. (Little did I know, we were fixing to ring in 2013 with a bit of a stomach bug.) So Paper Jump 2013 was not the spectacular event I expected it to be, but the boys had a good time anyway. After a short "swim" through the paper, Baelin decided he'd rather lie down, and Romyn tried to make the most of it, collecting his favorite papers and trims, and gluing himself together a creation. Romyn suggested next year we keep all the packaging and plastic bits from toys  so he can make something a little more substantial. Well, I guess we might have something new to look forward to during Paper Jump 2014.

 

 Happy New Year from My Family to Yours! <3 -Kendra