tradition

Tradition ROCKS.

Let me just tell you.

I love it so much. Doing the same thing over and over because it brings happy times, feelings, and memories. My favorite Christmas traditions:

1. Our tree. It's always real. We go cut it down from a farm in Alpine, and every year it gets bigger. This year it's 15 ft tall and about 6 or 7 ft wide. And I'm not even exaggerating about that.

2. Our ornaments. Each year, my Grammy gives us money to buy an ornament for ourselves. Her rules are that it must be either glass or sparkly. That way, the lights in the tree reflect in the glass and/or sparkles, and the whole tree just glows. So we now all have our own box of ornaments just for us. And I can take it with me when I get married and have my own tree. My parents also get us an ornament each year, and it usually has something to do with an event that's happened in the past year, so we remember each year through ornaments. For example, I have a King Tut from the year I studied Egypt in school. A cell phone from the year I asked for one, but wasn't old enough. A present from the year I had my Sweet Sixteen. This year, I got two little red [love]birds (I like to think they're love birds. They're kinda cute), as the one I chose, and from my parents a pizza (my first job this year - Pizza Pie Cafe), and this Thespian ... thing. You know the two faces - smiling and frowning? Yeah. Each side is a different face. It's rather creepy, honestly, and I don't want to be caught alone with this ornament in a dark room. But I really do love it. :)

3. Present tags. No boring "To: Anna From: Mom & Dad" at our house! No, each nametag has a different name, something to do with us. "To: #2 From: #4 & #8" (I'm second child, my parents 4th and 8th). "To: Elizabeth From: Marguerite & Conley (middle names). I used the rapper names Garrett and I joke about for his card - "To: G-Money From: Hot BisKIT" (we'll be famous someday). This lovely tradition pretty much makes everything more entertaining, especially when my mom runs out of ideas and writes nametags late a night. "To: American Studies Awesome Student!" Haha. I laughed. Just put "awesome" at the beginning of the name, and it would have made more sense. But it was great. This year, one of my nametags said "To: Scope for Imagination From: Blog impaired" and "To: This Lovely Notebook From: Pen & Pencil". I felt cool about it.

4. Christmas Eve meal. We get in touch with our German heritage for this night. Chicken noodle soup (no, that's not really German, but it's homemade so it's delicious), and the rest is breads, cheeses, meats, crackers, sausages, etc.

5. Hiding the pickle. Classic - my parents hide our pickle ornament (glass and sparkly, fear not), then the kids all come and look for it. Whoever finds it first gets an extra present. And just so you know, I totally found it this year. And got a free drink at Roxberry.

6. Christmas night Pajamas. 'Nuff said? I think so.

7. Christmas night. All the kids sleep upstairs in one room, then descend the stairs together in the morning (shielding our eyes, of course, except Trina who always peeks... which has now become tradition... cheater), wake our parents, walk out youngest to oldest. My dad has now mentioned in recent years that we don't have to follow that rule they made when we were young. We can go out and begin with Santa gifts by ourselves. We all retaliated. "No!!" "Tradition!" "Are you INSANE?!" We do it out of spite, almost. To show we really love it.

8. Christmas breakfast. Mini sausages, english muffins, clementines, orange juice.

Ahhhh. Doesn't tradition bring you such comfort?!

What are your favorite traditions?



P.S. I received a RECORD PLAYER from Santa.
How. Magical.