A few
years ago, after visiting home around the holidays from Seattle, I
realized all the traditions that my family has around Christmas.
Previously the flow of holiday events had been just that- the things we
do every year- just normal flow.
As
I grow older, the traditions and the effort to keep them going mean so
much more. Sometimes they are reminders of all the values we hold up
at this time of year and other times they are the small things that,
taken out of context, seem almost meaningless.
Below are some of our traditions, the vast majority of which I have practiced every year of my life.
Christmas Eve Breakfast-
For as long as anyone can remember and certainly longer than my 32
years, the men in our family have breakfast with the men in the Graves
family. Though it might sound funny, we end up at the International
House of Pancakes most of the time, where "Pigs in Blankets" are an
annual fave.
Christmas Eve and Bama's -
For the first time in 40 years or so, my Mom took over the Christmas
eve dinner for about 50 people. It's a huge crowd and over the last
few years, we've started doing a gift exchange that we call a "White
Elephant" exchange in Seattle. This year, we adopted the name "Dirty
Santa", which is a bit freaky sounding. We laughed so hard at the gift
tags where people had written "Dirty Santa" so that it looked like "TO:
Dirty FROM: Santa".
Christmas Guns
- Somewhere along the way, Santa started leaving toy guns in our
stockings- you know the kind- they shoot those little orange suction
cup bullets. Every year, we end up running around the house shooting
each other with the little suction cups things. This year it was
rubber bands. Can you believe that none of us turned out to be
murderers?
Christmas Breakfast
- My Mom busts out the goods and we all look forward to bacon, sausage,
eggs, pancakes, biscuits, gravy, coffee, fruit, mimosas. Mmmmm.
Christmas Movie
- This one is only 8-10 years old but we try to see a movie on
Christmas day. As it turns out, the tradition is much more about
trying to see the movie we pick and having to settle for something like
"Dude Where's My Car?" - true story. We tried for King Kong this
year (note "tried").
Christmas Malaise - We always seem to have some virus spreading through the family and I find myself oh-so-vulnerable being from another state.
Sachi
and I are always thinking about new traditions we can start for our
(future) family but it seems like the best ones aren't created, but
just show up.
