Christmas
What are your favorite Christmas traditions? Do you practice them or simply miss them?
If this year you could simply have the perfect Christmas, what would it look like?
If this year you could simply have the perfect Christmas, what would it look like?
posted by Kizz at 4/17/2005 07:04:00 PM
1 Comments:
Heh. How did I know this subject would show up on our blog? If your post weren't here this morning, I probably would have put something up..
My favorite christmas traditions? It's funny, because I don't have any traditions that stretch back to my childhood, that's for sure - all my favorite things about the holiday season are things that I've done in the last fifteen years or so, so there's no tradition that I miss - I pretty much practice all of them.
I love going out to pick our tree. We cut our own and even though I can't stand wandering around in the cold trying to decide which tree is best (we often have an indecision issue), it's something we do as a family and I treasure it. I really love decorating the house - I find that I forget about all the great stuff we have until I'm unwrapping them.
I love watching Patrick Stewart's "A Christmas Carol" and, well, Jerry Maguire. Jerry Maguire isn't a Christams movie, I know; Jerry is a solo tradition of mine. Colin and Corey are very often shopping until the last minute. While they're out fighting crowds, I put the girls to bed, set myself up in front of the T.V. with tape, scissors, wrapping paper and naked gifts, pop in Jerry and Rod, and wrap. I practically know the whole script by heart, but that doesn't diminish my enjoyment of it even a little.
I really love some of the food that we eat around Christmas time (and only around Christmas time), though I could do without the nasty figgy pudding, but were talking about things we love, right? I almost never eat roast turkey any other time of year (well, there's Thanksgiving, but the two holidays are really kind of one big one anyway...). I make an onion, butter, and cream dish that I LOVE (I know it sounds nasty, but TRUST me...). For some reason, the only time there's ever Godiva chocolate in my house is around Christmas time. Yum!
I take it back - there IS one tradition that I miss: my mother in law used to sing with a choral group that puts on a GORGEOUS show in one of the Catholic churches in Dover. Old Christmas tunes, some more traditional but mostly really old hymns and stuff sung in Latin or high German. The voices float through the air like a silk scarf on a summer breeze, and they would make me cry. The MIL got cut from the team, so we don't go anymore. I kind of miss that.
Ah, my "perfect" Christmas! My shopping would be completed before Thanksgiving. Our family picture would be taken in a timely manner so all our cards would all get mailed (not everyone got a christmas card this year, and no one got an in-front-of-the-tree picture because none were worth printing). Christmas day would be celebrated at our house and thusly: pre-noon would be just the immediates - Colin, me, the girls, Corey and Jen - opening gifts in our jammies and drinking coffee or tea (or Ovaltine) and eating cinnamon rolls. After leisurely showers, we'd change into comfy casuals (no nylons, please - it's the freaking end of December - BURR!) and await the arrival of family and friends who respond positively to our open house invitation. There would be plenty of munchies and various beverages, a turkey would be roasting in the oven in anticipation of a five o'clock dinner (for which the rest of the food (onions in butter and cream among them!) would be prepared in advance and hiding in the fridge waiting to be heated up). Those who wish to partake of quiet conversation with Christmas carols in the background could stay in the living room, while those wishing to kick back a bit and maybe catch some of a bowl game could hang out in the family room. There would be gifting and toasting and little girls showing off new dresses and fun toys, with guests coming and going as they please without any pressure to stay or guilt about having other places to go. After dinner, there would be a group effort to clean up (hey, we're talking fantasy Christmas here, right?) and no one but the aforementioned immediates (minus, perhaps, Jen because she's not down with the whole big family thing) would be left at about eight o'clock to crash on the couch and take in a movie (or just sit and zone for a while). The perfect Christmas wouldn't be complete, though, without having the following day completely committment-free. I mean, stay-in-jammies-if-you-want free (or, at least, only having visitors who are down with the whole jammie thing). Sigh. Yep. That would be a winner.
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