I honestly couldn’t tell you when this tradition started because I don’t remember a year in my life when we didn’t do it. My dad may have even started with my older sister and then I came along and got to join in the fun. Who knows. All I know is that it is my absolute favorite day of the year.

Every year, just a few days before Christmas, my dad takes my sister and I Christmas shopping. (Now that my sister has two little girls, they get to come along too!) We normally have a game plan of what stores we’re going to go to and an idea of where we want to eat lunch (in our family this is a very important part of the day!).

The last few years we have started our day at Menards to get all the great deals on the Christmas decor. We then head to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and finish our day at the mall.

It’s really nothing too exciting. We all have most of our Christmas presents bought, but it’s not about buying the presents that day. It’s about the time we get to spend with our dad. Just the girls and dad. It’s his favorite day of the year and we love it just as much.

The amount of memories we have with this day are incredible. Our favorite memory is when dad went to get the car so my sister and I wouldn’t have to walk through the snow to the car with all the packages. When he pulled up to the front doors, he popped the trunk and I started throwing all the presents in. When I shut the trunk door he thought I had actually shut the car door. The next thing I knew, dad was pulling away from the curb, without me, and my sister was looking out the window like a lost puppy. According to her dad had asked, “well where should we go now girls?” and she replied, “can we go back and get Kellie?”. Funniest day of my entire life. So now the joke is to make sure that I’m always in the vehicle before we take off.

So today we are off to do some father-daughter-granddaughter shopping and I couldn’t be more excited! Stay tuned for pictures and some new great memories. My youngest niece, Holly, gets to come along this year! (Last year she was still in her momma’s belly!) So there will be a new face in the traditional pictures!