The tradition continues...

Remember these?

Aren't they so cute and adorable? They bring back so many memories of my childhood Christmases. I'm hoping they'll do the same for my little ones.

Grandma DD bought these cute little Santa mugs for us three kids back in the early 80s. I can't even remember how old I was. Was Levi even born yet? It became a Christmas tradition for us kids to drink our hot chocolate out of these tiny mugs (seriously, they hold maybe like half a cup, so cute and little!). When Christmas was over, Mom would wrap them up ever so carefully in tissue paper and box them up, putting them away with all the Christmas stuff until next year. And it wouldn't truly feel like Christmas for us Simcoe kids until we saw these mugs being unwrapped from the tissue. And, of course, until we had that first mug of hot chocolate! It just seemed to taste so much better.

A few years ago, Mom unearthed the mugs and passed them along to me, figuring that I would take better care of them, and appreciate them more, than my two bachelor brothers. And so I've carried on that tradition with my own kids, of making a big spectacle of bringing them out and unwrapping them from the tissue while the kids ooh and aah. And I tell the story of how Grandma DD bought them for the three little Simcoe kids many, many years ago. Lena wanted to know how old the mugs are. I looked on the bottom and here it said '1982'. "Whooooaaahhhh," the kids were awed, "they're almost as old as YOU, Mom!" Gee thanks.

But it does kind of boggle the mind, that these little mugs are 27 years old. Still in mint condition, still bringing joy and cheer to the little ones. And who knows, in 15-20 years time it might be my grandkids drinking hot chocolate from these little Santas!

Of course, because there are only the three original mini-mugs, poor Ryder got this one (sucks to be #4, I guess!). A much bigger, less breakable, more toddler-friendly mug, you could say.