This is the time of year when i realize more than ever how strong our family traditions truly are. It’s also the time of year when I notice that there are things I do now as an adult that I would never in a million years thought I ever would do.

When I was little my mom would always tell me stories of how she and my uncles would have to go out with their brown paper bags and pick the perfect pine cones for my grandma. It was the one thing she dreaded each year. So much so that I never had to do it as a child. My grandma loved decorating with pine cones and had a tree full of them to boot.

As I started putting away the fall decorations to get ready for Christmas, the ideas I was curating in my head had a lot of pine cones.

I went to the craft store and saw the price of them and thought no way JOSÉ, we can get these for free in nature!

Standing in a friend’s yard choosing the perfect pine cones with my two youngest children to make sure they would suffice for our decor, I had to stop and laugh at the predicament I had gotten us into.

It was time for me to carry on the decades old tradition of the pine cones, but the boys and I had a blast choosing each one.