December 5-Traditions

Alright, day five in my countdown to Christmas and I have been thinking about traditions. When I was little Christmas always went like this: Christmas Eve: Bake Sugar Cookies and Decorate, Then Drive Around and Look At Christmas Decorations/Lights, Then Go to Grandma's House(Dad's side) and Celebrate Christmas over there, Home, Cookies and Milk for Santa, Make Sure Lights are Still Turned On(So Santa Can See), Go to Bed. Christmas Morning: Get up(CRACK of Dawn, usually it was about 4 AM and mom had a "Don't get me up until 7" rule. Let me tell you, when your a kid waiting to leave your room to see what Santa left you and to open up all your other presents-3 hours might as well be waiting an entire day-it sucks!), Wake Mom and Dad up, see what Santa brought, open gifts from parents, get ready and wait til time to go to Grandmommy's House(mom's side), Finally go to Grandmommy's, Get there and wait for everyone to be there and ready, open up presents, Eat and visit, then Go Home and enjoy everything from the day. We also always had a traditional dinner at Grandma's on Dad's side-Turkey, Ham, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Stuffing, etc. And we alternated between Enchiladas and Lasagna at Grandmommys house-Turkey and Ham get old so we did it a little different, our tradition, but still a tradition. As the years went, we grew(my sister and I) and Christmas did a little changing of its own-in the Tradition aspect. I mean for one, my niece was born and my sister no longer lived at home so we had to wait for Christmas at moms until my sister did Christmas at her home. Eventually I grew up and no longer lived at home-had children of my own and their fathers family to spend Christmas with. Traditions changed a little to accommodate everything, every ones life changes. However, there are things that we never changed and things that we carried over to our own homes. My house, my children and I, still baked and decorate sugar cookies on Christmas Eve, still drive around looking at lights and decorations, still leave the Christmas tree(lights) on for Santa, still set out Cookies and Milk and my kids wake me when they get up so they can see their Santa gifts and open their other gifts(I don't make them wait until 7-they can wake me up as soon as they wake up, no matter how early). My dad, my kids and I still spend Christmas Eve at my Grandmas house and the dinner there is still traditional. We no longer go to Grandmommy's house(for reasons I stated in prev topic-The Woes of Christmas) but we do go to moms and we still either have Enchiladas or Lasagna. So, things change, people grow and family circumstance changes, but there are still traditions to be found in our family. Do you have Christmas Traditions? Have things gotten lost over the years? Has too much changed? Take time this Christmas to think of a tradition that your family has, hold it tight, things can change. I challenge you to find at least one tradition that you can hold on to. If you really don't have traditions then I challenge you to start one. Traditions are important, not always, but it is good for you to have at least one Christmas tradition that is always consistent. You could be having the craziest Christmas of all time and that one tradition is what makes or breaks it. As long as there is one thing that you do every year, no matter what, your feet will not lose their ground. It may get wobbly and you may find yourself falling off-balance, but then you see or think of that tradition and it all comes back.