Traditions

As the holidays approach, I’m reminded of the traditions my family has when we get together to celebrate. And I feel bittersweet about the traditions that go away and the new ones that develop.

Easter
Easter Egg Hunt - 2 of them! Our church does a pancake breakfast and egg hunt the day before Easter. The men of the church make pancakes while the families dine, dye eggs, make crafts and get their faces painted. Then the children are separated into two groups (those who don’t quite know how to hunt and those who know EXACTLY what they’re doing) to go find their candy-filled eggs. Then on Sunday morning we hunt for our own eggs at home. Most years the hunt happens inside because the dew on the morning grass would cause the dye to run off the hard-boiled eggs and onto our Easter dresses. Now that it’s my daughter who does the hunting, the Easter Bunny brings her two baskets: one to our house and, for some reason, one to her Auntie’s house for Auntie to bring over to our house. After returning from the worship service at church, we’ll have our “dinner.” There’s not usually a tradition when it comes to the food served at Easter dinner, especially when a birthday lands on the same day.

Thanksgiving
Other than gathering for “dinner” in the afternoon, the only real tradition our family has is that we never know exactly who’ll be at dinner with us. Friends from church, friends from school, friends from work, friends stationed at Camp Pendleton…who knows!?! One year we had four countries represented at our table: America (my family), Morocco (my cousin’s husband), Germany (same cousin’s exchange student (who we pretty much consider another cousin)) and North Carolina (same cousin’s boss and his wife). We decided that North Carolina needed to be it’s own country since we had to teach our guests that you a) eat black olives and b) eat them off your fingers.

Christmas
- Christmas Eve we are at church for the majority of the evening for two worship services. The first service packs the “house:” the performance of the children and youth pageant. It’s always standing-room only for this service. The kids do a fantastic job and it’s so cute to see the littlest ones dressed as sheep. Any of us that were ever in our church’s Christmas Eve pageant as kids were a sheep at one point. One year, my daughter wore the sheep mask that was my sister’s when SHE was little! After the pageant we have dinner with a big group of people. Sometimes at our house, sometimes at someone else’s house, sometimes at Norm’s Restaurant if no one wants to cook. But it’s always a good-sized crowd of kids and adults from the church. Then the same group usually heads off to the 11:00 PM service at the church. This one still brings a good crowd, but it’s more solemn and personal. The service ends right around midnight with the congregation singing Joy to the World in the courtyard, each person holding a candle. Our family goes back home to open one present before going to bed. It’s always new pajamas. Sometimes they’re all from Mom, sometimes we each buy PJs for another person. While this is a relatively new tradition for our family (I think it started about 8-10 years ago), it’s still going strong. Both my sister and I (grown-ups) pressured Mom into keeping the tradition this year: we both want our PJs!
- Christmas morning is one of my favorite traditions. I bake cinnamon rolls for the family to eat as we open presents by the Christmas Tree. As it should be, my daughter always opens 2 presents for every 1 the rest of us open. There’s the  “bow bag” to catch the bows and ribbons that will be re-used the next year (because, you know, there’s a bow shortage going on) and inevitably one of us will end up with a bow stuck to our forehead. This year the morning tradition will change; we’ll let my daughter open up all of her presents and then we’ll have a brunch. As per the visitation change that happened this summer, at 2:00 PM my ex-husband will arrive to take my daughter to his house in another state for the remainder of the Winter Break she gets from school.

Oh, I forgot the most important tradition (that actually applies to all major “dinner in the afternoon” holidays): Mom’s church potatoes. Cheesy goodness that is always inhaled by anyone present for the meal. If there are no church potatoes on the table, it’s not a real holiday no matter what the calendar says.

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