It's that time of year again...The Holiday Season. I was wondering about everyone's Holiday Family (or personal) Traditions. What kinds of things do you do every year that really set the mood for you ...or amuse your family at gatherings?

My husband and I always try and take an evening out of busy schedules, throw a bunch of Christmas CDs in the car and ride around looking at all the light displays. There's a town close by that I swear it's mandatory to go Grizwald every year. We also have a special ornament that we hunt for every year to represent something special or eventfull that happened that year. Every year when we put up the tree we get to remenice about some of the great things we've done together. These things always get us in the right frame of mind.

How bout you all?

~Eliza

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"Only the united beat of sex and heart together can create ecstasy" ~Anaïs Nin


"The full moon is calling, the fever is high.
And the wicked wind whispers and moans.
You got your demons, you got desires
Well, I got a few of my own"
~The Eagles

We go out looking at the Lights also with a trip to Shannon Springs and walk across the Crystal bridge (100 ft long covered in white lights)holding hands.I also make all the little kids (that still believe in santa) reindeer shoes to find on the front porch Christmas morning.Its always good for an arugment with them on which riendeer lost a shoe.And its not Christmas until Bing Crosby sings White Christmas

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The mind never forgets what the hands have learned

Every Christmas Eve my Dad and I make these cookies that we both love, but my Mom isn't fond of. By the time we are done it's time to clean ourselves up and get on some church clothes and head out for the late night service. Then we come home and snack on various things including the cookies

We also go and look at lights and make cookies. On Christmas Eve my daughter and I make a cake for Jesus's birthday and lay out cookies for Santa (Still after 12 years )

I also buy my daughter a special ornament every year and give it to her when we decorate the tree and rock out to Christmas music.

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My Story~ Friday Night Spanking

Mainly when the kids were smaller ...

... We always listened to the radio show called, "The Cinnamon Bear," which played the month leading up to Christmas.

... We used to bake a birthday cake for Jesus that we had at our Christmas Even dinner.

... We still open gifts Christmas morning.

As an aside, some dear friends of ours have a neat tradition ... they get just three gifts from their immediate family (reminding them of the three gifts from the three wisemen). Not sure how well that would have played with our kids, but it does put the meaning of the season back into it.

Tradition rules this house beginning the day after Thanksgiving when the kids haul all the Christmas stuff out and begin decorating the house. Christmas music and movies also make their debut on that day.

The tree goes up the first Sunday in December.

I make each family member and loved one an ornament every year. Each child has a nice collection by the time they leave home.

I also made stockings for each family member. This year I have a new son-in-law and my daughter has been breathing down my neck to get his stocking done.

Santa brings gifts on Christmas Eve. That will never change. He always makes a mess as he's coming out of the fireplace, too.

I have a set of homemade pipe bells and I put some music together... Everyone gets one or two bells and it's alot of fun to play songs as a group.

I was proud of my kids... they unanimously voted to get fewer gifts so we could scrape the funds together to fly their oldest sibling home for Christmas.


These are a few of their traditions. There are some things I've wanted to do but haven't been able to. I'm hoping to make some changes.

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It's no trick loving somebody at their best. Love is loving them at their worst.
~Tom Stoppard~


It isn't premarital sex if you have no intention of getting married.
~George Burns~


As bad as I am, I'm proud of the fact that I'm worse than I seem.
~A. DiFranco~

Eliza,

Our Christmas traditions are realized rather like a Japanese Noh play.

On the first Saturday of Advent, we cut down our Christmas tree, and decorate the front of our house. On the third Saturday of Advent, we bake the myriad Christmas cookies. Many new words are invented then! We decorate our Christmas tree on the last Saturday of Advent.

Each Sunday of Advent, we light the appropriate candles of the Advent Wreath at dinner, and read aloud the corresponding prayer.

Christmas Eve is packed. When the family was young, I read “The Night Before Christmas” to the children, then later we moved on to Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. We attend Midnight Mass. After the kinder are asleep, Santa leaves presents.

On Christmas Day, we each open one present before Mass, leaving the children tingling in anticipation until after the Christchild has been again welcomed. Finally, the Madding Crowd descends upon Chaos Manor in the afternoon for a family gift giving and feast.

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Eudaimonia

Well just to throw a loop into things, we celebrate both Chanukah and Christmas in my house.

For Chanukah we do brunch with the immediate family - my one last grandparent, my parents and my sister and brother-in-law (who also celebrate both) and light the Menorah for each of the 8 nights. We eat latkes with apple sauce and usually, bagels, cream cheese and lox (smoked salmon)

My wife gives me my gifts for Chanukah and I give her a token gift or 2 and the rest of us exchange gifts as well.

For Christmas, we have my wife's mom and aunt, my parents, sister and brother in law and my best friend and his wife (who also celebrate both) up to my house for Chinese Food - a somewhat Jewish Christmas tradition. After dinner, we all sit around the tree in my living room and exhange the gifts we bought for each other (except for my wife's family....)

Christmas Day with only my wife's Mom and Aunt starts bright and early with coffee, cinnamon buns and stockings.We then follow it up with a full breakfast and get dinner in the oven....then back to the tree for gift exchange (where I give my wife her gifts and she gives me a token gift).

Then we spend a day together and finish it up with a full Christmas dinner with enough food to feed at least double the 4 people who will eat it.

And that's that.

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