“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmastime.” (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Hello, my lovely friends!
Thinking about today’s blog and I thought about holiday traditions. Those things that you seem to do every year and now have turned into something special you enjoy doing. Do you have any holiday traditions that you did when you were younger or now?
1. Counting the Christmas Lights: any time we would drive anywhere my sister and I would count the Christmas lights in trees. My sister and I would turn it into a serious competition. There was this one restaurant that had about fifteen trees with lights and we would argue who saw them first every time we passed it. My mom finally said that the trees we off limits in our game.
2. Buying a new ornament: every year my mom would let us pick a new ornament to put on the tree. Most times we would go up to the mountains the day after Thanksgiving and find an ornament there. Other times we would make ornaments at home. We still have them all and put them up on one of the trees.
3. Decorating the tree: the weekend before Thanksgiving we would put up the tree after dinner. My job was to separate the branches into piles by the color. We would put the tree together. My dad would string the lights while we pulled out the decorations. My mom would have Christmas music on and make us some hot cocoa. It would take us about two hours to put the tree together.
4. Watching the Nutcracker on Christmas Eve: for over ten years I’ve been watching the Nutcracker ballet on Christmas Eve. I believe I started it one year when I was spending the holiday by myself. I started having a bowl of pasta and a glass of wine while watching it. It’s become one of my favorite traditions.
5. Making tamales: for our Christmas dinner it was always Mexican food and the main dish was tamales. This takes some time to do so the month before we would gather at my grandparents’ house and we have an assembly line and make them. By the time we were finished each family had about six or seven dozen to enjoy for months.
Tis the season for joy and cheer! So glad you stopped by. Wishing you a wonderful rest of your [day/evening/morning], wherever your holiday adventures may take you. Until next time...
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Wishing you and your mom a happy month sharing these traditions. 🎅🏼🌲
ReplyDeleteThose are some really great traditions, I wish you and your mom and Scooter a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition was going to the zoo on Christmas Eve w/Dad. We were young and didn't realize @ that time that's when Mom wrapped the presents. It was always fun running through the zoo. We were usually the only ones there! Got to feed the lion cubs one year in their indoor habitat. THAT was a memory that lives on.
ReplyDeleteWatched Miracle on 34th Street (black and white version) last night. LOVE that movie.
hugs and blessings
barb
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It's Kathy. I remember buying the Christmas Tree and decorating it as a family when I was growing up. But the only tradition I have now is buying a dated Christmas Ornament for each of my married children starting the year they were married. I have them here in my office waiting for me to do their cards and get them in the mail!
ReplyDeleteAll fine traditions... I wonder what happened to my spirit this year... I have no decorations out other than Frosty the Demented Snowman, and only two parts of him! I just can't imagine Ember dealing well with Christmas decorations up close. I'm thinking she may get left in her crate whenever we do the family gather, as there was much chaos on Thanksgiving with the two dogs. Ember's a little older now, and Carl's "puppy pass" for her seems to have expired. He tried to exert his male dominance over her. She didn't seem to mind, but when they were inside with the humans there was danger / temptation everywhere!
ReplyDeleteEnough! My favorite traditions were the chili and chicken duet soup supper on Christmas eve, opening packages as a nuclear family, then of course there were the visits to both sets of grandparents and great-grands for Christmas day, breakfast with one, cross the river for dinner with the other set. Breakfast included chocolate cherries! Dinner was a big deal with the ladies spending the day in the kitchen.
As a mom, my favorite traditions were baking with my son, showing him how the pie dough was made, how his favorite cookies were constructed, etc.
We are simplifying this year, with no gifts for the adults, just for the kiddo. There's the big debate about whether Santa is real or not... vital to a 6 year old!