Birthday Traditions

Karis turned 2 yesterday! Here are two traditions we are cultivating:

1. Birthday scrapbook: This was an idea from another mom at the mothers' group at church. I've been overwhelmed with how far behind (of course) I am on scrapbooking. She has four kids, and gives each on their birthday the scrapbook pages for the prior year. This is perfect for me! A fairly do-able deadline. I won't have her 2nd year 100% completed on her birthday, but I'll be close. And then I'm only a year behind on her life, and still have 6 months to finish Jonathan's first year. :)

2. Birthday letter: This is an idea sparked by Noel Piper's book Treasuring God in Our Traditions. While the Pipers don't do a birthday letter per se (Pastor John writes a poem), letters are more our style. This year Alex and I each wrote a letter to Karis. I'll post them the next two days. We consider her personality, what we love about her, her accomplishments and milestones for the year, and evidences of grace and God at work in her life. We'll read them aloud to her when we celebrate her birthday tomorrow, and then I'll scrapbook the letters.