Christmas Traditions...New and Old

I have been meaning to write this blog for a while now...since we put up our Christmas tree. For some reason, I just cannot find the time to blog anymore. I love blogging and enjoy reading all the blogs, but for some reason lately I just haven't made time for it. At the beginning of the new year, my goal is to start blogging again like I used to.

This was my first Christmas as a married woman. I've lived with Dave for the past 3 years, but you know being married I assumed we needed to start our "own" Christmas traditions. As we started pulling out the tree, I got all excited to start our own traditions. In my mind I knew all the traditions I had as a kid and I wanted to make sure that I passed those down to my children some day...plus added a few of our own fun things. As I was planning future Christmases in my head, Dave was trying to explain to me that we already have traditions of our own. As I snapped back from my future thoughts, I tried to understand what "our" traditions were. I mean we decorated the tree, but it's not like we did anything special. We were already 2 songs in before I realized what he was talking about.

You see neither Dave nor I are fond of Christmas music. I don't mind it on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day or even once in a while here and there. But when Magic 95.5 starts the all day everyday christmas songs, I want to pull my hair out. Or when you are shopping...drives me nuts. So last year as we decorated our tree, Dave had downloaded a bunch of funny Chrismtas songs. He downloaded I Want a Hippopatomus for Christmas, the 12 Redneck Days of Christmas, Merry Christmas from the Family...all songs like that. There was no Jingle Bells for us...unless of course it was the version where dogs barked it so that Quincy could enjoy decorating too! We listened to them while we decorated our tree last year and this year he had them all ready to go when I started to pull out the ornaments. He reminded me that last year I said I had so much fun decorating the tree listening to these goofy songs that I wanted to make it a tradition every year! I guess that our "own" traditions had already started.

Another tradition that I have had in my family is that we always open presents on Christmas eve. I can remember the first year that my brother in law had to work on Christmas Eve so we waited to open presents on Christmas morning so he could be with us. I was ok with breaking tradition a little there because it wouldn't have been a tradition if he hadn't been there to open presents with us, but none the less it was breaking my tradition...I think I was like 14 at the time! As you can see breaking traditions doesn't go over well for me.

I can also vividly remember the first Christmas where my sister and brother in law left on Christmas day to go and spend Christmas with his family. Again I think I was like 12, however, not ok in my book. That was NOT how we did Christmas in our family and if he was going to be a part of our family he was going to follow OUR traditions. My mom quickly pointed out that my sister was now starting her own family with her own traditions and she was going to have to share her time at Christmas with both of her families. Annoyed, I tried to understand. This year, my niece and nephew, and I must admit even my sister, had to learn this lesson all over again. You see we went to Winnemucca for Christmas Eve and then came back on Christmas Day to spend it with Dave's dad. I went a day early so that I could have some extra time with the kids, but you could tell that they were bummed we were leaving on Christmas morning as was my sister. I think she tried to keep us there as long as possible! In 26 years, I have never not attened Christmas mass. I'm not overly religious, but we are dealing with tradition here, not so much the actual act of church. It snowed like you cannot believe in Winnemucca. I swear they got at least 8 inches of snow if not more and then I come home to Reno where we literally have a dusting in comparison. The snow was too much in the morning and my dad decided they would go to church at night. That meant I wouldn't be included. I tried to be like yay I get out of a long mass with a boring priest (even if my sister called to run in that it was a nice service because of the new priest), but part of me was sad. There was another little piece of tradition slipping away from me if I had to spend Christmas day not with my family. You would think that it's not a big deal because all we do on Christmas day is get presents from Santa and then it's pretty much over. We do the presents and big Christmas dinner the night before. But we are lazy and play games all day on Christmas day...something I didn't do this year.

When we got to Fernley, it was all different. No games, we just sat with Dave's dad and talked. We ended up watching a movie and then he opened his presents from us. We had already opened ours from him while he was gone to Wisconsin because he gave them to us early. Even though it was a different tradition, it was nice. I had fun spending the time with my father in law. I realized it didn't matter if it wasn't the same tradition, it was still Chrismtas and he was just as much a part of my family now as I was of his. So time must be spent equally. It's a lesson in growing up if you will. Things change as we get older.

I hope that next year at this time, Dave and I will be in a house of our own. I think we are going to start the process of seriously looking right after the first of the year. My hopes is that next year, everyone can come to our house for Christmas. That way we don't have to worry about Dave having to rush home to get to work the next day...my sister and brother in law always have the day after Christmas and Christmas Eve off...Dave never does. My dad is retired so he could come. Plus then I would be able to actually have a Christmas at my own house where I get to cook a dinner for everyone. That would be a new tradition in itself!