Christmas Traditions
My mom was All About Christmas, which is why it's still so painful that she died on Christmas Day. Though she steadfastly refused to decorate before Thanksgiving, the day after it all went up — the live tree downstairs with the hodgepodge of sentimental ornaments, the small tree in my room with "my" ornaments, and the upstairs tree with its blue and teal ornaments, all carefully hand-sequined by my mom. Other decorations hung and placed everywhere.
We get a big tree, I manage a few other decorations, and last year hung 40 glass ornaments from fishing line from the hallway ceiling. I did not manage to repeat that this year.
My mom made over 20 different kinds of holiday cookies, 4 kinds of bread, and very traditional appetizers and wicked punch for her annual open house, which was a legendary event.
I make a few kinds of cookies and rely on cookie exchanges for a full tray.
My mom took us out on limousine rides with champagne and hand-dipped chocolate truffles to see the Christmas lights, and lined our front path with luminaria on Christmas Eve.
We *usually* make it on some kind of drive around to look at lights, but I always get the luminaria up.
My mom would take me to all kinds of holiday events, from the 8th floor of Daytons to Moore by 4 Christmas concerts to Ballet of the Dolls' take on the Nutcracker to very traditional pieces.
Here's where I don't fail quite so badly. Last night we went to see Out on a Limb perform their mini-Nutcracker at Rosedale, and then clear to the other side of town to see a new company perform The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. We're also pretty good at cheesy holiday movies, even without the Hallmark channel (12 Dogs of Christmas, anyone?)
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This year we're discovering a new holiday tradition. You see, I don't remember my dad being all that gung-ho about Christmas. The past decade, he's always come over for Christmas Eve, and been very generous, and often we've met him at the Park Tavern on Christmas Day. He had a particular tradition of bringing 3-Buck Chuck, wrapped in red or white tissue paper, for everyone to take a bottle home on Christmas Eve.
It turns out that my dad was a secret Christmas freak.
He had an entire storage room filled with Christmas things — decorations, mangers, lights (3 tubs of lights), ornaments, records and cds of Christmas music, Santa suits, you get the picture. And so much wrapping paper. There must be 100 rolls of wrapping paper, a garbage bag full of bows, all kinds of ribbon, and tags, and tissue paper, and package decorations...
So tonight, we mainly wrapped with "grandpa's paper." And there's enough to do so for many more years....
We get a big tree, I manage a few other decorations, and last year hung 40 glass ornaments from fishing line from the hallway ceiling. I did not manage to repeat that this year.
My mom made over 20 different kinds of holiday cookies, 4 kinds of bread, and very traditional appetizers and wicked punch for her annual open house, which was a legendary event.
I make a few kinds of cookies and rely on cookie exchanges for a full tray.
My mom took us out on limousine rides with champagne and hand-dipped chocolate truffles to see the Christmas lights, and lined our front path with luminaria on Christmas Eve.
We *usually* make it on some kind of drive around to look at lights, but I always get the luminaria up.
My mom would take me to all kinds of holiday events, from the 8th floor of Daytons to Moore by 4 Christmas concerts to Ballet of the Dolls' take on the Nutcracker to very traditional pieces.
Here's where I don't fail quite so badly. Last night we went to see Out on a Limb perform their mini-Nutcracker at Rosedale, and then clear to the other side of town to see a new company perform The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. We're also pretty good at cheesy holiday movies, even without the Hallmark channel (12 Dogs of Christmas, anyone?)
--
This year we're discovering a new holiday tradition. You see, I don't remember my dad being all that gung-ho about Christmas. The past decade, he's always come over for Christmas Eve, and been very generous, and often we've met him at the Park Tavern on Christmas Day. He had a particular tradition of bringing 3-Buck Chuck, wrapped in red or white tissue paper, for everyone to take a bottle home on Christmas Eve.
It turns out that my dad was a secret Christmas freak.
He had an entire storage room filled with Christmas things — decorations, mangers, lights (3 tubs of lights), ornaments, records and cds of Christmas music, Santa suits, you get the picture. And so much wrapping paper. There must be 100 rolls of wrapping paper, a garbage bag full of bows, all kinds of ribbon, and tags, and tissue paper, and package decorations...
So tonight, we mainly wrapped with "grandpa's paper." And there's enough to do so for many more years....
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