14 December 2006

Family Traditions

I love this seasons. The lights, the weather, the food, the friends and family, the drinks (eggnog, wine and such), the celebrations of the greatest gift that was ever given, Christmas music. I really love almost everything about November to December.

But I think my favorite thing is all the traditions that our family has, raviolis, sleeping by the Christmas tree when we were little, opening one gift Christmas eve, playing Santa, putting a puzzle together, banging pots and pans, etc. etc.

I have two questions, the first, what are your favorite holiday traditions? The second, for those who are married, what are new holiday traditions that have formed in your own little family?

4 comments:

Maria Elena said...

uMy favorite Christmas traditions are... Going to look for a real Christmas tree with the whole family when it's cold outside (I love the smell of Christmas trees), eating raviolis on Christmas Day, and seeing how excited mom gets to shop for and give us girls our matching pajama pants! I miss my mamma!!!

And unfortunately... I'm not married!!!

MissHannah said...

My favorites are; matching pajamas, hot cocoa at Coco's after getting the Christmas tree, banging pots and pans on New Years eve.

And not to steal the thunder but, my favorite Ferguson tradition is when they pretend that it is cold outside when they go to pick out their Christmas tree.

Kendall Garippa said...

Growing up, I spent every other year in Phoenix and the other years in Waco. My favorite traditions of Phoenix Christmas's are going to look at the incredible lights somewhere in a rich part of town (I can't remember where because I never knew where I was, but we would get out of the car and walk and some of the houses you could even walk inside of them!) Also, my Grandma does a "snow bank" at our big Christmas day lunch. Everyone is assigned a seat at the table and you have a string at your plate attached to a little present for you that is hidden under "snow" in the middle of the table. Before we eat, everyone counts to three and pulls there gift by the string. It's fun :)

In Waco, the big tradition is the "Christmas program." My grandma is huge on programs :) So, we all have to have something prepared for her - a song (which is what my sisters and I and my dad always do) or a poem to read or something. Then one of the men reads the Christmas story and we take time to reflect on the blessings of the past year. When we were smaller, we would actually act out the Christmas story for the program - Whoever was youngest was baby Jesus, my Aunt Martha's sons were always the three wisemen, me and Trip (the two oldest) were Mary and Joseph, and I think Kristen always had to be some kind of animal! (That explains a lot!) We would find treasures around the house to use as incense, gold, etc. and put sheets over our heads. Another good tradition from Waco is our stockings. My Grandma has a stocking for each grandchild (there's a lot of us) and we get up on Christmas morning and open them first before lunch and the program and the rest of the present opening. The stockings are the best - full of candy, gift cards, bath products, jewelry, socks, and whatever other randomness that my grandma found throughout the year!

Wow! I just went crazy! Sorry for the length, it's fun to think back on past traditions. Daniel and I, unfortunately, have not had time to make our own traditions yet! If this year is any foreshadowing, our traditions will include living out of bags and cars, planning crazy moves, and never knowing what the next day will bring! haha - here's to new Christmas traditions :)

Anonymous said...

Well I love all of our traditions and also look forward to new ones and carrying old ones on. Like Dad, I always want to cook like you have, how amazing it is when everyone gathers around the table for some great food, there's something to be said for the that and dad your amazing. So the food and table time is definetely one of my favorites along with sleeping by the christmas tree. Joey and I used to try and sleep by the tree for like a week straight before christmas. Also I sure love giving gifts to everybody, we are so blessed to be able to do this every year.