Tradition.... Tradition!

So, I'm more than a month behind in my regular journal, but it's just so much easier to update this because I can do it on a break at work. And I type faster than I write. I think after I finish this journal I'm going to switch to a typed journal. I know I'd update more often if I could type it out. Anyway, moving on...

Christmas is my favorite holiday and traditions make me happier than most things in this world. Probably because they always include my family. I just hope I can pass on some memorable ones to my kids. As Christmas is almost here though, I keep thinking about the traditions I love and what new ones I want to make for our new little family. I decided to write a few down on here to share with all of you.

TREATS

We made a variety of treats for Christmas through the years, mostly for neighbor gifts. Those included hand-dipped chocolate oreos, chocolate/carmel dipped pretzels, etc. Even though those varied every year, there were a few staples that we had to have.

1) Kiss Cookies: These were peanut butter cookies with a Hershey's kiss on top. Best when eaten fresh. Then the chocolate is all melted & gooey & the cookie's warm. I love these! (Unfortunately, Brian is allergic/doesn't like Peanut Butter. So I've yet to make these. I have all the stuff ready, but I just can't picture eating almost 4 dozen of them by myself. Maybe I'll make those my neighbor gifts this year too.)

2) "S" Cookies: These are favorites in our family, though new comers often don't like them at first. It's a Swedish/danish cookie, with a little almond extract, so the flavor is really light, but we love them! My grandma is half Swedish, so that's how it passed down to us. We often color them green for Christmas, & I guess we could have them year-round but it just seems more Christmas-y to us.

DECORATING

We would usually decorate the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We pulled all the stuff down from storage & then the fun would begin. My mom wasn't big on doing it all but she loves to have her house decorated. So us kids & my dad embraced it. :) We all put up the tree & hang our favorite ornaments. It's so fun to have the whole has decorated & finally really feeling like Christmas.

Ornaments: We've never had a themed tree, that I can remember. We have such a variety of ornaments that I think it looks better that way. More unique to us. All the children have received a Precious Moments Ornament & we all get to hang our own. Mine is a little girl in a bubble bath. I hang it front & center each year. I've mostly gotten away with this because I was the tallest for a while. That is no longer the case. Also, I have a "Melissa's First Christmas Ornament 1984" that I hang just above my precious moments one. Now that I'm no longer living at home, it makes it harder to defend my positions, but I fix it every time we visit. :)

(This year when I went to take a picture of my first Christmas ornament, this is how my brother hid it from me. Funny, funny.)

Nativity Set: My mom has a gorgeous Nativity that we set up on the fireplace mantel. I am usually in charge of this, though it does vary sometimes. We have a particular way of setting it up (Wise Men from the East, manger over a light, etc). Brian "helped" me last year and kept rearranging it to be funny. :)

CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas Eve & Day are above all my favorite traditions. This is because it's all about family.

Dinner: My mom's side of the family, anyone in Utah, comes over to my parent's house for a big dinner. This makes for a tight fit but we love it even more that way. It's a very full house, which means lots of food, and talking and laughter. It's the best feeling in the world.

Gift Exchange: This definitely NOT a white elephant gift exchange, because that drives everyone nuts, but a $5 gift exchange. When we were little it was split into a kid's exchange and then an adult exchange. Now we're all old enough that it's just one big one. It takes a little bit longer, but we have a great time, stealing and re-stealing gifts.

Songs & Story: Finally, to end the evening, we all gather in the living room and sing Christmas Carols, fun & spiritual ones. I usually play the piano, which means I can't always sing, but I love to help out. Then we calm everyone down and my uncle reads the Christmas story from Luke 2. When my Grandpa Barlow was alive, he would play Silent Night on the harmonica while this was being read. He passed away when I was a senior in high school, and since then, my cousin took up the responsibility to learn the harmonica and carry on the tradition. Everyone cries during this story and song, and then we end by singing Silent Night all together. I think it's the best way to remember what everything is really about. Surrounded by family, remembering Christ.

CHRISTMAS DAY

The way my family does Christmas morning is different than any other family I've ever met. Besides a few of my cousins.

Sleeping: On Christmas Eve, all of my siblings and I would sleep together in one room. It used to be one bed when there were only three of us under 6. :) Now we all drag sleeping bags in and sleep in one room. We all have great memories of teasing each other and telling stories and keeping everyone awake even when they wanted to sleep. It's good bonding time.

Morning: We are not allowed to get up at any time of the morning and wake everyone up and run downstairs and just start opening presents. My parents wake us up, around 7 or so. I don't even remember fighting them on this. I don't know how they convinced us to do it when we were little, but it works out really well now. We've never had little siblings come & jump on us to wake up too early. And we get to just sleep in.

Once we get up we get dressed, hair done, brushed teeth. All without looking into the living room to sneak a peek at presents that could be lying out. Then we line up youngest to oldest, and my mom leads us to breakfast, because we have to close our eyes. The table is set up so we can't see into the tree & presents, still.

We have our traditional Christmas Breakfast: Monkey bread, bacon or sausage, orange juice & hot chocolate. Sometimes it's hard to eat it all because you're so excited, but my parents wanted to make sure we got at least something real & healthy before all the candy and things.

After everyone's done, then we can go open our stockings. And finally, after all that's finished, then we can go upstairs and see the presents! Usually, we each have one "Santa" present that's been laid out for us. We each have our little area & we then start opening presents, taking turns at first with my dad passing them out. Then after a little while we all open things together because it just takes so long with seven people. :)

Afternoon: After we open presents, we clean up all the paper and get to fiddle around with some of our stuff. Then we head up to my Dad's parents house and his whole side usually ends up there some time of the day or the other. We eat & play & talk and just relax.