my favorite gift, and traditions

Last night I received my first meaningful gift of the season.  You see, I'm the world's worst tooth fairy.  I can't tell you the number of times that my children have put their teeth under their pillows only to discover it still there in the morning with no money.  I feel so awful when I forget.  I usually run and grab some change, hide it in my hand, and say, "Are you sure?  Let me help you look some more.  Maybe it got lost in the sheets."  And then I miraculously "find" the money.  

Well, my daughter was so excited to lose a tooth at school yesterday .  Although she no longer believes in the tooth fairy, she still looked forward to putting her tooth under her pillow and receiving some cash.  Several times she mentioned her excitement to remind me!  She even brought up how she knew that the tooth fairy wasn't real.~ "I know the tooth fairy isn't real because why would she give my friends $20 and me only a couple quarters...or maybe a dollar if I'm lucky."  

I knew I couldn't flub this one up.  So, when she went to bed, I tried hard to remember my most important task of the night.  I asked my teenager to go get a dollar from my wallet. (yes, a dollar~this tooth fairy doesn't believe a tooth is worth more than that!)  He asked me what it was for~and I replied, "the tooth fairy".

I literally had to hold the dollar in my hand while I did other tasks (until she went to sleep) because I did not want to forget.  About a half hour later, I went to her room to find her sound asleep.  I carefully lifted the pillow, (being relieved that I had remembered this time) and there, next to her tooth, were a couple of folded dollar bills.  My husband wasn't home, and the boys were in bed.  However, I made a bee line to my oldest son's bed, and finding him barely awake I whispered, "Did you put money under Grace's pillow?"  By then my other son sat up in bed and said, "yeah...  We thought the tooth fairy could use a little help this time."  They had each put a dollar under her pillow ! I was so happy that they were so considerate of their little sister.  And as I was leaving, my oldest said, "We thought it would be nice if no one knew about it."

And there I was, hardly able to contain my joy~and now sharing their secret with all of you!  To me, experiences like these, are the best gifts of all.

Recently, my daughter was asked to contribute a paper "quilt" square to her classes "quilt of holiday traditions".  It was to be a family effort, and this is what we came up with.

After my oldest took his first cooking class at school and learned how to make peppermint hot chocolate a couple of years ago, he began making it for our family.  It was delicious, and we decided to make it a new tradition in our family.  The recipe calls for milk, white chocolate  chips, and peppermint candy.  Unfortunately, we have an email in to the cooking teacher right now because we misplaced the recipe, so I am not able to share it with you yet!  But if you google it, you'll find lots of good recipes~and they are all about the same.

I love to hear about different family traditions.  I will never forget a friend who told me long ago, (through a funny experience that they had had) that her family now drinks root beer for breakfast every Christmas morning!  Do you have a unique tradition?