I've been thinking a lot about tradition lately--which rituals I treasure, which it's time to let go of, which new ones I want to foster for my own growing family.Traditions are some of the things that I love most about the holiday season--those little special things we do only at this time of year, and the unique ways in which we make the celebration of this long-heralded season our own (in spite of the ridiculous current debate over the "right" way to mark it).

Last Saturday, Byrne and I walked down to the Christmas Tree lot adjacent to our neighborhood farmer's market to pick out our tree--the first we've gotten as a couple (Byrne bought and decorated a tree for me once as a surprise, before we were married, but we're out of town for Christmas every year, so it never seems worth the trouble). We chose and paid for our balsam fir tree, donned our gloves, and walked home--Byrne carried the trunk and I held the lighter top end. Some neighbors sort of half-waved at us in a puzzled way as we passed their house. They were probably wondering whether a pregnant lady should be walking down the street carrying a tree.

That night, we put on James Brown's Funky Christmas CD as we prepared a feast fit for the holidays: Dungeness crab, freshly caught from Bodega Bay and obtained from the fishmonger at the farmer's market; a crusty artisanal baguette from the local bakery, and a salad of mixed greens made delectable by homemade vinaigrette and little chunks of avocado and satsuma segments. We ate so much that our stomachs hurt and we had no more room for the hot cocoa that I had planned to make to accompany our next activity--trimming the tree.

As we hung our ornaments--all items obtained on our travels or the travels of our family and friends, or given to us as gifts by loved ones--we reminisced about all the wonderful journeys we've taken together. This year's trimmings include painted-tin ornaments from Oaxaca, Mexico; golden temple bells from Thailand; bamboo stars from Cambodia; miniature silk lanterns from Vietnam; trinkets given to us from India and Russia; and other little tokens from our trips here and there. Our newest ornament was one that we bought in honor of The Bug's first Christmas, if only in utero: an enamel bumble bee. A different kind of souvenir to mark a different kind of journey.

It was such a fun day that I'm hoping it will become a holiday tradition in Byrne's and my family. Mid-December will always be near the start of Dungeness season around here, and as long as we're in the neighborhood, we'll have both the Bodega Bay crab guys and the tree lot right around the corner. Oh, and there's one more vital part of the Reese Family Tree Trimmin' 'n Crab Feast Spectacular that's not to be forgotten: The Jack-Daniels-and-Coke cocktail that Byrne gets to have at hand while he's setting up the tree, namely wrestling the trunk of the beast into that metal base with the little prongs that have to be mounted just right so that the tree stands perfectly upright for three weeks plus. What would holiday traditions be without the little indulgences that prevent us from plummeting over the precipice of nervous breakdown, anyway?