A friend asked me to share some of my Christmas traditions. We only have a few of them. Or so I thought.
We always put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving. It always has to have tinsel garland on it for Trent. :-) We have a huge box of ornaments - ones the kids made, ones I've made, ones we've bought here or there and just a mix of others. The girls are in charge of putting those on the tree. I get to put all of the glass ones on the tree along with 2 sets of tiered glass bells. The tree also has to have tons of lights on it. Oh, I almost forgot about the candy canes. There has to be candy canes. The buying of those is a tradition of its own. We decorate the tree and then head to Walgreen's to buy the candy canes and any other things we might be missing for the tree.
After Thanksgiving it is always okay to make the first batch of Nut Goodie Bars. The best treat ever. When I buy the ingredients for them I always have to make sure I buy extra milk. Nut Goodie Bars always go best with a big glass of cold milk. We don't make a lot of cookies or anything. Normally, we make at least one batch of cut out sugar cookies. They get decorated, frosted and eaten. This year we mixed up the dough but for some reason never got them baked. :-(
For as many years as I've had a family I've created a family Christmas letter. Since we have so much family living far away it has been a great way to fill everyone in on what my family is doing. Last year and again this year I have not created my family Christmas letter. I'm not sure what has happened but it just hasn't gotten done.
Wow, it seems to be the year of breaking traditions? This is really sad to me. I'll make up for it next year when I'm 100% again.
Christmas Eve we have our "traditional" dinner of steak and shrimp. Along with my mom's fruit salad. Some years we have salads with it, other years we do steak fries. And for the past few years we have Peanut Butter Fudge pie for dessert.
Our kids have always gotten up before the crack of dawn on Christmas morning. Waiting and waiting until it is "late enough" to wake us up so they can open presents. Just like I did with my own siblings. My kids still do this as - almost grownups. I still fill Christmas stockings for all of them. Apples, oranges, coloring books and candy are the normal things in each stocking. Then something fun or needed for each of them. I'm not sure what the apples and oranges are about but my mom always did it so I just carried on that tradition.
After we open presents we have fresh cinnamon rolls before we get ready to head out to the lake to spend the day with my Dad and whichever of my siblings and spouses, nieces and nephews can make it there. The day is spent laughing, eating, laughing and eating some more. When we get home, Nate and Lora come over to open gifts. They spend Christmas morning with Lora's parents.
New Year's Eve needs to be added here as well. My parents never went out for New Year's Eve. We would have tons of munchies. All of our favorites. It was one of the few times we got to drink more than one can of pop in one week. ha! We would eat junk food all night and watch the ball drop with Dick Clark on TV. My family has done this as well. Everyone helps create the menu. Each year we try to find something new and different to make. Usually around 3 or 4 we make subs with all the fixings. Then around 8 or 9PM all of the junk food comes out. We park in front of the TV and watch movies. Most of the time it is kids' choice of movies.
New Year's Day brings a day of leftovers - subs and junk food. What a great way to start out a new year!
When I was asked about my traditions I didn't think I could find enough traditions to make it worth a blog entry but...
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my friends and family. I hope it is a blessed and happy season.
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