Tradition....Tradition! (A La Fiddler on the Roof...)

So.......I've been absent. In the Internet World, that is. In "real" life? I've been quite busy bread baking, cookie making, candy molding, present wrapping, house cleaning, dog shaving, dog bathing, dinner making, laundry folding...and...yeah. That about sums it up. Oh, and thoroughly enjoying my friend's little baby Owen. :) Need to get me one of those sometime...

We've been busily trying to get ready for our trek home, which is tomorrow. As in, mere hours from right now! I'm super excited to get home for all the usual reasons, but also because I want to FEEL Christmas. This is our first Christmas in California and I don't know if it's just California, or where we live or what, but it just hasn't felt like Christmas this year, despite all of our preparations. No snow, we've hardly seen any lights or decorations. We don't know anyone so there have been no parties, no goodies delivered, no caroling.

So for this reason, among others, I am excited to get home to family and friends. And The Traditions!

1. My Grandma & Grandpa have always come up to our house on Christmas morning. We could dive into our stockings, but had to wait until they arrived to open any presents. Which as a child was AGONIZING. Santa had left us PRESENTS. And they were RIGHT THERE. Inches from our tiny little trembling fingers. And you know how it goes when you open your stocking. You pull out every single thing, hardly looking at it, and then reach your little arm all the way to the bottom, JUST to make sure you hadn't missed anything. And by now it's already been one whole minute since you tore down the stairs, and they STILL aren't here! Not that I didn't love them coming up. :) I still do. Can't wait Grandma!

2. Every year since I was born my mother has bought an ornament for me. This year there will be 23 ornaments of mine on the Christmas tree, and every year I love to find them and remember what it was like each time I received them. What I'd asked for, what I was excited for. I've started this with Caleb and myself, and I look forward to continuing it with our future children as well. My mother also always bought an ornament for her tree from the vacations she went on, and now we have several ornaments from around the US and Europe, and I hope to be able to have that tradition as well! And collect LOTS of ornaments.... :)

3. What would Christmas be without all the candies and cookies and other holiday goodies? My Grandma makes English Toffee and Slush, a family favorite, my great Aunt makes FABULOUS homemade caramels, and my mother makes a great ham, egg, & cheese breakfast casserole on Christmas morning.

4. Every year starting...oh....Thanksgiving night...my family pulls out our two favorite Christmas movies. The new "Grinch" movie, and the all time classic, "Christmas Vacation". I just can't make it a year without watching Cousin Eddy emptying his "crapper"into Clarke Griswold's gutter, or watch the Grinch give out jury duty notices. It starts at Thanksgiving, and finishes on Christmas Eve, and no, we don't get sick of it. :)

5. The best part about Christmas is family, of course. And our family knows how to throw a good party. My Dad's side is getting so big, we've had to rent out our local church to hold us all. Which works, because after it's all cleaned up we play a few rowdy rounds of....Dodge ball. Everyone in. But besides just throwing a small hard ball at each other, we love to sit around, talk, eat, and tease each other mercilessly. I love it. And love them. Again, with the family and the food. :) There's something special about it though!

Merry Christmas, and safe travels everyone. I hope to not have any stories about snow drifts and chains on the tires.....