As the holidays quickly approach, I’m reminded of all the different little quirky traditions we have as a family.
Thanksgiving comes and we look forward to deep fried turkey. Although I must admit, when we
lived in Southeast Texas and David came home talking about frying up a turkey, I thought he had lost his mind. The mere thought of it sounded disgusting to me. Needless to say, I buckled one year and I was hooked! The downfall is the preparation of the bird….the night before Thanksgiving, we mix up a strange concoction of melted butter, lemon juice, Cajun seasoning, garlic, hot pepper sauce and a million other spices and we use a humongous needle to inject the turkey. Our son, Nathan, has been delegated this task for the past several years, much to his delight. Then we stir up a spicy rub mixture to sprinkle all over the outside of the bird. After that, we wrap the turkey in a clean garbage bag and place it in the fridge until the men light up the propane tank on Thanksgiving Day. The past couple of years, our daughter, Samantha and her husband, Rudy have hosted Thanksgiving at their home. We love spending time together as a family, enjoying a yummy meal. Only after the meal does Rudy allow Samantha to turn on her Christmas lights and put up the decorations.
Christmas brings it’s own set of family traditions. David grew up making homemade candies at Christmastime, so we have adopted this tradition since moving back to Indiana. We spend one entirely long day, making truffles, turtles, caramels, and other delicacies. David’s family joins us as we melt chocolate, dip candies in chocolate, taste test chocolate and end up ultimately wearing chocolate…
By the end of the day, it’s pretty safe to say, that I don’t ever want to see a piece of chocolate again….at least for a day or two. It brings great joy to give a platter or container of homemade candies to a friend or teachers or the mail person because they absolutely love it each year!
Our family always goes to a Christmas tree farm to select our very own tree and cut it down. Ever since Samantha was little, for some reason she named our family tree, “Katie” so to this day, our tree is referred to as “Katie.”
When both of our kids still lived at home, the tree selection process was a bit of a nightmare, to be quite honest. One would find the most perfect, well-rounded spruce or evergreen, only to have the other one find fault with it, simply because they hadn’t found it. This sibling love about drove me crazy as we froze our little heinies off in the snow. I must admit, the process has gone much smoother now that only one child lives at home. There’s much less bickering. We enjoy this tradition as a family every year.
Another Christmas Tradition that our family began a few years ago, is that we enjoy going out for Chinese food on Christmas Eve for dinner. This began one year, when Christmas actually fell on a Sunday. We’d already celebrated with our extended families and had big, fancy meals. So after church, David decided we’d go out for lunch. The only restaurant open on Christmas Day was a local Chinese Buffet. A few days earlier, we had watched the classic movie, “A Christmas Story” so when we pulled up to the restaurant, we turned to the kids and solemnly told them under no circumstances, could they sing “fa ra ra ra ra” in the restaurant! While we were eating our lunch that day, to our horror, the Christmas carol came on the radio and we all busted out laughing! Nowadays, we celebrate Christmas Eve with several friends and we enjoy Chinese food, because nothing quite says Merry Christmas like an egg roll.
Most of all, we love being with family and friends over the holidays.
What are some of your traditions?
Leave a Reply