Traditions

I will actually post two blogs today!  My daddy might not want to read this one!

Today as I was sitting in the computer lab at school mapping out lesson plans for the next few weeks, I realized that I am asking my students to share their favorite Christmas foods, traditions, songs, etc., but I did not know if I could identify my own answers to these questions.  So, I will warn you that this is a rather sappy, reflective, somewhat sad blog.

So, when I started thinking about Christmas foods, I could not really come up with many.  I feel like we eat the same things for Christmas as we do for Thanksgiving.  We vary the casseroles, veggies, etc.  However, what I did think of was how every year since I was little (that I can remember) we have dipped pretzels in almond bark.  We use the same set of tongs and everything; well, I always use them!  We always use the white almond bark, and it is one of my favorite things to do.  I get tired after a bit, but I always enjoy it.  I have done this with friends, my momma, etc., but we always do it at my house.

The other thing that is HUGE for me at Christmas is Barber's Egg Nog because it is the BEST egg nog out there; hands down!!!  I get so excited when I first see it in the stores that I have been known to hug the freezer door!  Ooops...don't judge.  I am going to miss this.  I love the carton it comes in:  dark green with a red bow "tied" around it.  It is perfection.

I also really like gum drops or spice drops.  When I was little my granny would have them on a little tree.  So now when I have them, or we get out our own gum drop tree I always think of her!!

Christmas Songs: I should preface this by saying that I love A LOT of Christmas songs and it would be hard to list them all, but the one I have chosen as a favorite and will share with my students is "Christmas in Dixie" by Alabama.  I always tear up at the beginning of this song when it says "By now in New York City there's snow on the ground".  This gets me every time.  I love the idea of Christmas all over the nation.  I love the sound of the song....it just gets me every time.  I plan to share it with the students...I have a lesson plan idea for it!!

Traditions:  Now, this is where the blog may become a bit much for some, but this is for my own memories, and this is part of my memories.

When I started thinking about Christmas traditions,  I could not think of a consistent Christmas tradition that we have in my family.   I was trying to tell this to Nick the other night, and I came up with some, but today I really realized that it was because Christmas changes so much for me every few years.

When I was little we had a set routine, or tradition if you will.  On Christmas Eve we would go to my Granny and Paw Paw's house every year.  We would go there to eat and open presents.  My memories are sadly fading, but I do have some.  I feel like every year when we showed up there would be Paw Paw's wonderful baked beans in the oven and they would smell amazing.  I can almost smell their house now.  I remember Paw Paw being outside to smoke his pipe.  I can still picture Granny sitting in her chair with the table next to her.  There was a couch across from her and a wall of pictures behind the couch.  I would always look at the pictures; I now know that one of the pictures (one of three children) was actually a picture of family.  I can still picture the sliding glass door and the balcony...strangely I remember the bathroom.  I remember Granny's room and her dresser next to her bed that contained all of her jewelry and perfumes.  Anyway, so at Christmas there was always a tree in the formal living room area.  There would be decorations on this table under a mirror that faced the window to the street.  I can still imagine the way my Granny's fingernails felt....they were always painted and really smooth!  So on Christmas we would eat and open presents.  I wish I could say that I have more vivid memories, but at this point it has been over 10 years since I had a Christmas with her.  I do remember that we would always leave "early" so that I could go home and go to bed so that Santa Claus could come.  I do remember driving home one year in the rain/snow.

Christmas Morning always started early because I would get up at an unreasonable hour.  I remember one year, the year I got a "La Baby", I ran downstairs, saw it and immediately grabbed it and darted up the stairs to show my momma!  I think she made me go back to bed with the doll!  Another year I had a scavenger hunt of sorts for a large Winnie the Pooh that was on the roof.

Once our presents were all opened, we would get dressed to go to "Mom's" house...this is my momma's mom.  My Aunt Susan and Uncle Charles were always there.  We would have breakfast, and Mom would ALWAYS have fried eggs; this is why I eat fried eggs, and this is especially why I love to eat them on Christmas morning.  I just feel like that is what you are supposed to eat on Christmas morning.  I remember one year, on the way to their house I was playing with a Cabbage Patch doll I got that ate food, and I got her hair stuck in the mechanism of the mouth. I was devastated.  I also know that one year I took a new bike over there to ride.  I remember one year getting a lot of Barbie dolls at Mom's house.

Then, we would come home to rest and play.  I think that we used to go to a Christmas service at church, but I could not tell you when.

Later years:  I do not remember much about those first years after we did not do these things.  I know I was in high school, but I think I have purposefully blocked it out.  Then, there was a year we went to Tuscaloosa.  I miss Pamela, very much!

After a few years of dating Mike, I started the "tradition" of going with him around lunch time to his Mimi's house.  We would open gifts, youngest to oldest, have wonderful food, and talk.  It was always fun, and his family was always sweet to remember me in their Christmas shopping.  The first year we were together Mike gave me this Wizard of Oz Polly Pocket type thing.  I have a beautiful monogrammed blanket from his mom, and many other thoughtful gifts from over the years.  Mike and I would always open our presents before we left my house.  There were even a few years that I was convinced to participate in their Christmas Eve dinner at Grandmom's house.  I do think of Mike's grandmothers often, and wonder how they are doing.  However, this became a bit of a tradition.

Skip forward to Christmas 2010, and yet another tradition had gone missing.  Mike and I were no longer together, and I was so deeply depressed that I did not care about much that year.  However, God being the wonderful God that He is, gave me the first white Christmas I have ever had in my life.  Snow is such a beautiful, white, crisp clean thing...I felt like it was a beautiful start...I was so grateful for it that day because it reminded me that God had(has) washed me white as snow.  That year we did not go anywhere, did not see anyone.

Last year we went to my Aunt Susan's after we opened presents.

This year I will be in Italy.

The past few years we have gone to Christmas services at church as well.

Christmas has changed so much for me over the years.  It is hard to say a favorite tradition.  However, I do enjoy our Christmas tree traditions.  1. My baby ornament goes on the bottom 2. The winner of the Iron Bowl gets their ornament at the top of the tree.  However, even when Auburn wins, it goes at the top on my daddy's side of the tree, and Alabama goes just under it in the front.  When Alabama wins, it goes at the TOP, front and center...and Auburn goes at the bottom (for real) on my daddy's side.  We don't play fair, I know.

Please do not mistake this blog for complaining about not having consistent traditions.  It is not that at all, but rather was just for me to think through this.