Holiday Traditions~Do U Have Any?

I always put out a bunch of pumpkin seeds in the tumbleweed patch that I try to convert into a garden. Somehow, I normally end up with 2, one for each of the kids still at home. We carve them, put glow sticks in 'em and go Trick or Treat the grandmas and a couple close friends.

Thanksgiving is always at the in-laws. FIL was dying two years ago, and nobody was in the mood for the holiday. I felt it was important to have that last one with him, so I cooked and transported the whole meal to their house. Wasn't the same, but we still had it with him.

Christmas has been here with my mom and my in-laws. We open one gift the night before, with the kids. The next morning, when DH can't stand waiting anymore, he wakes the kids up (about 5 am! LOL) and we open the rest. Everybody comes over mid-morning or so and helps me finish getting the meal together and on the table.

It's all about family (oh, and good food
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My grandmother has a "Toot'n'Click" car that comes out with the christmas baubles. It's a red car with a couple that zips around, stopping every now and then as the woman takes a pic and the guy goes "toot toot!" on the horn. I swear she's had it forEVER. The people lin it look like they're from the '30s, and the car is the same!
 
When the kids were little, we had one very lean Thanksgiving. We made cheap spaghetti and watched movies. After that, we kept the tradition and have lasagna and cheesecake. We modified a little in recent years because my SIL lost his parents and grandparents in a little over one year. He misses his traditions so we have turkey etc., and have Italian on Friday.
 
I make sour cream cookies , kids demand it every holiday. Family recipe and a cookie staple of our holiday. Also I do the cooking every year, I'm known a the family cook. I am alway requested to make my rolls, which are also something the entire family look forward too. We also every Christmas Eve pick one gift to open from under the tree. Then after we place cookies and milk out for Santa. Then later once kids are in bed the cats eat the cookie and drink the milk
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That sounds like my house!!!!!!
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We celebrate the winter solstice and must both give food to the earth and our ancestors, but we cannot have the celebration without giving food away. Frequently it is groceries to a needy family, but the last few years it has been meals to elderly people who are also invited to dinner. (I make an extra plate of dinner and throw it in the freezer. The I batch them up and give them to our elderly neighbor.)


For the Solstice we also make solstice bread. (Think monkey ball bread) I make the dough at sunrise and then after the first rise everyone gathers around the bowl and we take turns rolling the balls while making a wish for someone else's for the new year. "may my sister have better health this year." We place a raisin or dried fruit in the ball or roll them in cinnamon. After all the dough is in the pan everyone has breakfast while it rises a second time and then is baked so we can have it later as a late brunch. (Not everyone is willing to get up that early!)

It's all about giving thanks and thinking of others.
 
I'm Italian so Christmas eve is 12 fishes including bakala (sp?) Every year I make cookies. Lots of cookies, and I only give out handmade gifts. Unfortunately due to my job, I often work on the actual holidays themselves, but we all get together on the weekends. This year I am working hoth thanksgiving and christmas, so I'll be cooking for all my coworkers at the ambulance garage.
 
Ours have changed drastically with the passing of my grandparents.

Thanksgiving we now head to my moms for turkey etc. Used to be dinner at the grandparents. Then it was dinner at home and dessert at the grandparent. Then dinner/dessert at my aunts. Now dinner/dessert at my moms.

We always get a live/cut tree and always impress the tree lot guy by not taking forever to choose one. Learned our lesson a few years ago on waiting til the last minute to get a tree. Thing was hideous and expensive. We tried getting a fresh(you go out into the "lot" with a hack saw and personally cut and haul your own tree out to the vehicle) thing a few year ago. Yeah. That wont ever happen again. Picture Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase. I still have marks on my ceiling and holes in my walls from that one.
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I do all the decorating outside. Husband only helps with the tree decorations.

My mom used to make pies etc. No more. I am thinking we are lucky to not be eating pizza on the holidays lately. Which is sad, since I cant bake a pie for the life of me. Might try again with premade crust. But it really isnt the same.

We do try to get a new ornament for the tree every year. Heading to Yankee Candle next weekend. So we will see. There are certain ornaments only I get to put up. Like my turtle. Or the antique glass bulb. My dh has a bear one we got when we were first married. That is his to put up. Kiddo gets the M&M ones we got when we honeymooned in Vegas. She thinks it's cool that we got them before she was even a blip on the screen.
 
This year is different for us too. First year with my fiance and his family as well as mine. We usually eat at my mom's but she said NO WAY this year, so it is me. I am a good cook, so I don't worry about that and we are eating on Saturday this year, so I have Thanksgiving day to bake all the treats ahead of time. I feel good.
 

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