Holiday Traditions: Part II

The past week or so has been tedious, to say the least.

With the constantly driving in snow covered roads, a daughter that won’t consistently stay asleep, the jumble of list in my head for the holidays (How DOES Santa keep his lists straight??) and stress at work, I have been an emotional wreck. To the point of, while falling asleep last night, I considered taking a pregnancy test the next morning just to make sure. But after G letting me get 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep, I miraculously felt much more with it – and very much not with child.

My point to all of the rambling nonsense was I’ve been busy…and I literally called Uncle last night on the drive home. (Audibly, ask my daughter who was in the back seat and the unnecessarily-slow moving truck in front of me whom I directed it towards….) Getting to this blog has totally not been a priority. Then today at it work it dawned on me: I had promised a post of our Christmas traditions…..how better to get my mental lists organized than to make them tangible lists, while posting it on my blog! Ta da!

So here we are. Now that everyone is on the same page, lets get rollin’

Baking Cookies

This will be the 3^rd year my mom & I have made Christmas cookies. We decided to start doing it as gifts for friends & family instead of gifts. (And who doesn’t love cookies??) My mom & I are planners, so this extends much beyond just the day of baking. There’s the deciding on which recipes to choose, what to package them in, when to make them, etc. The first year we were way too ambitious, choosing too many recipes. What can I say, we like cookies. At the end of that shenanigan we had promised each other to limit how many recipes we did the next year. And we did. Kind of. My mom likes to add recipes as the day approaches. I also wasn’t much help last year, being pregnant & swollen & having to wash the dough of my hands every 20 minutes to pee.

This year I’ve arranged for a daddy/daughter day for G…and we DID limit our recipes. We’re also working on something a little different this year. Though I might actually gain a reader, which would bring me to a total of 1. And it would be my luck that the 1 reader is someone receiving the new ‘thing’…so you’ll have to wait & hear about it later.

Hopefully in coming Christmases this can become a 3 generation tradition with G joining us. I have visions of little aprons dancing in my head.

Making Candles

For a few years I made candles with a family member. It was always a lot of fun deciding on colors & scents (picking scents that really did not “GO” with the colors was always my favorite). It was also a great way to recycle the stubs of other candles used throughout the year, as we’d melt those down to make into new candles. But due to circumstances beyond my control, that won’t be happening anymore. My sister & I had talked about taking up the tradition, but it didn’t happen this year. Two mom’s, with two little ones, one busy being a mommy, and making jewelry & being in a show and the other busy with a demanding change at work…and well there you have it. No candles this year. Maybe we’ll get a jump on next year, and make them in January!

Christmas Eve

For as long as I was growing up, Christmas Eve meant church service @ 7:00 and egg nog by the fire once we got home. Then it was off to bed to me, as I wondered what the adults did downstairs while they waited for Santa. As I got older…I was often one of the last ones to bed, and Christmas Eve lost its magic.

However this year it’s been completely revived, as a new tradition is starting in our household. Christmas Eve morning one of Santa’s elves will leave a new pair of pajamas and a new Christmas book , for G, to be used for Christmas Eve night. I am most excited about this. J

Which of course will be followed by Christmas Eve service, egg nog by the fire and if I can convince all other adults – a screening of Polar Express on the giant HD screen. (No matter how many times I watch that movie it makes me cry - it stills reminds me that Christmas can be magically, even without the magic!)

Christmas Day

The actual activities of Christmas day have morphed over the years, as I assume it does in all families; as everyone grows up, moves out and starts their own families with their own traditions. So right now our Christmas day is actually kind of looking for its identity, which I’m sure will flourish as we have older kiddies to enjoy the day with. Though there is always that orange in the toe of the stocking to look forward to. (Other than the year there must have been cold weather in FL, as Santa left random fruit in the toe of our stockings. Tyson’s smelled like a banana for a few days after that!)

The most important tradition of this entire month is time spent with family. I look forward to every get together, every moment that is different from the status quo of all other 11 months of the year. I love my family, and I love spending time with them. Laughing. Eating good food. Sharing stories & talking. Eating good food. Gift giving. Eating good food. Did I leave anything out? Oh yeah, eating good food.

What types of traditions does your family have?