Traditions And Memories

Here again is Gill, this time talking holiday traditions and memories.

Here come the holidays! Like it or not you will probably go somewhere with your family. You probably also have traditions that have gone back generations, like the sumtuous turkey dinner with all the trimmings, or the joining of hands to say the blessing. There are also those more modern ones. You know gathering around to watch Christmas Vacation, or the family game of snow football.

Memories are also made at this time. Some are for later amusement, like when uncle Larry ever the comedian got drunk and tried to put up the decorations. The emergency room nurses had a tough time not laughing at him being wheeled in with a Santa Clause stapled to his rear end. Some are sad, like when cousin Tyler was hit by a drunk driver and now is paralyzed from the chest down. Others still are distant, like when my dad, a giant to me picked me off the floor and tried to put me on top of the tree.

Whatever those traditions and memories are they hopefully will last for generations to come. What are your favorite traditions, memories, or moments?

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7 Comments

  1. Every Christmas Eve we get together with my mom’s side of the family for the annual dinner and gift exchange. I remember when I was little, me and my cousins used to have as much fun wrestling around and burying each other in the wrapping paper and empty boxes as we did with all the new stuff that was inside them. I don’t remember when that stopped, but for some reason the kids now don’t do it.

    It’s weird when a tradition breaks. Not so much the paper and boxes thing, but last year was the first year in my life that I wasn’t there for the Christmas Eve party or Christmas Morning with my family. that was odd. I’m already wondering if it’ll be more or less odd when I’m not there for the second time ever in 2014.

    1. I don’t know if I ever felt like our tradditions were etched in stone. Mom was always trying something new to see what would work. First when we were little, we would go to Grandma’s, arrive there on Christmas Eve, keep in mind this was a 6-hour drive, then open our gifts Christmas morning with a few others who stayed, then the rest of the cousins would arrive. Then eventually we decided this was too much trouble, so we would open our gifts Christmas Eve, then make the 6-hour mad dash down to grandma’s, and just eat dinner and stuff with everyone. Then we tried staying home some years for Christmas, and that sort of felt empty. Although I didn’t mind opening stuff and playing around Christmas Day, then we didn’t see all the cousins…although we never saw some of them because they lived in the states. Then as I got older, it got more important to see buddy J during the Christmas holidays, and see my other grandma too. So yeah. Actual Christmas has been something ever-changing. Take last year, for example. We ended up just going to Toronto to see everybody there. And this year, who the heck knows what my family’s doing. One minute, they’re going to Toronto…now I see an email from dad saying “we’ll save the rest of the decorating for when you all get home.” Except I’m not coming home. It’s a Christmas with Steve year. *shakes head* whatever.

      1. Yeah, pretty much. I think the new tradition is that neither of us knows what the hell we’re doing until we’re there and doing it.

        Gill just made the mistake of asking me when we did Christmas in my family, so I did my best to break down the history of it. If we never hear from her again, you’ll know why.

          1. Yeah. that’s why I never buy turkeys when they go on sale. I get more than my fill of it on Thanksgiving and Christmas. The rest of the year it’s all I can do to even think about the stuff. Which, now that I think of it, brings up another tradition we’ve had the last I don’t know how many years.

            On Christmas Day when we’re with my mom, we always have a really big meal. but the cool part is that it looks nothing like your traditional Christmas dinner. There’s not a turkey in sight. We have things like wings, shrimp, nachos, there’s been lobsters floating around, just all fun stuff to give you a break from the same old same old. What all did we have last time you were there, Carin? I can’t remember everything.

  2. oh gosh. There was shrimp and wings and nachos for sure…but heck if I can remember what else. Maybe meatballs? It was a nice break from turkey turkey turkey.

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