As I mentioned in my previous post, I finally eased into the holiday spirit and now that we're just a week away, I am feeling 100% festive! I have caught myself staring at our beautiful Christmas tree more than a dozen times and when I go to bed, I shut the lights off and just look at how it sparkles. We have our lights on a timer so don't worry, Earth savers! It's only on for a few hours every night. I have also been known to stand at one of our front windows (we have a lot of windows) and look at the neighbor's lights or our lights. I am proud to say I love our light display. We like the simplicity of white lights so we hang a line of white "ice cycle" lights along the top of the first story and for a little flair, we have red and white lights around the two "mini Christmas trees" that line our walkway. The red really sets off our red front door, if I do say so myself.
Honestly, it isn't any of these things that really gets me excited about Christmas. I grew up in a house with a Mom who is a Christmas fanatic. Not the weird, Clark W. Griswold, kind. No, my Mom just perked up around Christmas. She has always told/called/emailed us 6 months out; "Only 6 more months to CHRISTMAS!" Mom has always had a way with traditions, things I hope that we can do for our kids and add a few of our own to the mix.
The first tradition begins on Thanksgiving. Christmas movies are reserved for Christmas in our family. That means you don't watch the movies until Thanksgiving is over, or that night sometimes. When Christmas day has come and gone, you put them away with the rest of the decorations and look forward to them next year. My favorite Christmas movie, "A Muppet's Christmas Carol," was often the first one to make it to the VCR on Thanksgiving, probably because it's my sister's favorite too. I have most of the movie memorized but I truly love it. This makes sense. I never missed the Muppet's on Saturday mornings, either.
A few traditions are strung in there before Christmas in no particular order. My Mom is one of the best cooks around (if you ask me). She bakes and creates all kinds of Christmas goodies. You can almost always stop in and find something sweet or delicious to have with your coffee, or hot tea like me. Some of the regulars are fudge (now peanut butter fudge for my husband...it's his favorite!), peanut clusters (my personal favorite), chocolate peanut clusters, caramels (sometimes), butter spritz cookies, kiss cookies (my other favorite), and any number of other creation she chose. I'm telling you, this lady knows how to make some good stuff! There's also the decorations to think about. Our Christmas tree is fake, always has been, always will be. Honestly, I prefer it that way. No mess and reusable from year to year. But it's not the tree that's special at Mom and Dad's. It's the ornaments. Mom still uses our ornaments we made as kids or one of a huge long line of ornaments that my Grandma gets her every year, a tradition that started when my parents were married. There are also our first ornaments. Mine is a bulb that's gold with a scene on it and Sarah's is a pair of porcelain booties. This year, Mom made the mistake of saying her decorations were "out dated." I think she's gone a little nuts. I love the feel of our house during Christmas!
Then comes the days leading up to Christmas. For our family, Christmas begins on Christmas Eve. Mom would take the day off from work and take Sarah and me to a movie. She said it was the only way she could keep us entertained and out of her hair. What she thinks we didn't know is that she loves the movies and she really would have taken us anyway. Excuses, excuses! At the movie, we'd get popcorn and a snack, find our seat, and the few hours we were there seemed to fly by. Some of the most memorable movies we saw on Christmas Eve were "Fantasia", "A Muppet's Christmas Carol", and "The Lord of the Rings 1". Now, sometimes we don't plan ahead very well. For example, Fantasia was a 3 way pick but turned out to be REALLY long, and fairly boring. We were little and it was all music. Then there was the year of "The Lord of the Rings 1." We didn't plan ahead and we let Sarah choose. Nothing else rang a bell, including this movie. Some 3 hours later, Mom and I were not so awake and Sarah was SO excited. She LOVED it! Not my thing or Mom's but Sarah sure had a good time! We still joke about the year we saw "that Lord of the Rings movie."
Christmas Eve night, we go to my Grandma and Grandpa Wicker's for their Christmas with us. My Dad is an only child and I think I've mentioned before I have a very small family. When we were little, our Aunt Hazel would join us or sometimes Joyce Kholer, a family friend. Sometimes boyfriends would come along and now there's my husband and Sarah's fiancee, when they can make it up. Grandma cooks a great dinner and now that we're older, there is always wine. I never knew Grandma liked wine but she sure does! Grandma's tree is a sight to see. It is one of my favorites! It too is fake but that's not the deal. She uses white lights and mostly white decorations. The decorations she collects are these ornaments shaped like shells and made to look like various angels. They are so beautiful! I love to look at them as each one is a little different from the year before. A comical part of Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's is that she never (ever) remembers which stocking is whose and sometimes, you'll open a gift inside it that is actually meant for someone else. While she seems frustrated, to me, it just adds to the fun!
After we are finished there, we usually go home and Mom used to give us new pajamas to wear that night. She said it was so that her Christmas morning pictures wouldn't look horrible with us in our worn PJs or me in my basketball shorts and a t-shirt. Our pictures still looked pretty crappy, if you ask me. Who looks GOOD that early in the morning? Still, this is yet another tradition that was a lot of fun for us. We all love our cozy PJs! Then Mom would read us "Twas the Night Before Christmas," we'd put out cookies and milk, and then off to bed we went with the tree still lit up all night. These days, we don't do the PJs or the story and we usually skip the cookies and milk. My parents don't drink milk; they both hate it! Why waste? Instead, I usually go back to Grandma Wicker's and take her to midnight service at Church. I do love midnight service. The church she goes to has dark wood, red carpet, and red poinsettia's all over. They keep the lights low and there are good songs and usually a short but good sermon.
Finally, it's Christmas morning! We wake up and there were always a TON of presents under our tree. Let me back track, we wake up and it's barely light outside, sometimes it's still dark. Finally Mom put a stop to this. "You can only come wake us up when it's past such and such time." No worries. Sarah and I just cuddled together after waking each other up and as soon as that clock hit the correct time, we were up and in my parent's room! These days, the roles are reversed. My MOM wakes US up! My parents have always been amazing with Christmas gifts. Big or small, there were always a lot of presents, plenty more than we probably needed. As I got older, Mom told me her secret. Put aside money year round into a savings account, then use it only for Christmas, unless there's an emergency. If it's a harder year, put less in but still get good, worthwhile gifts. If it's a better year, go all out! No matter what kind of year they had financially, our Christmas mornings were always AMAZING!
We also have a traditional breakfast that morning; pepperoni bread. I know what you're thinking. "Pepperoni...for breakfast....on Christmas???" I say to you, don't knock it until you've tried it! One year, Mom got this recipe and ever since, it's been our request! Simply put, you take frozen bread dough, thaw, roll it out, put an egg/spice mixture on it, put cheese and pepperonis on it, roll it up, form into a loaf, and let it rise. Then bake while opening gifts. Voila! Best Christmas breakfast ever!
After gifts are opened and we've messed with them a bit, it's time to get ready to go to Grandma Mac's house. My Grandma Mac used to live on a farm outside of Eddyville, Iowa. Now she lives in Oskaloosa. Both places are about 45 minutes away. The farm was fun because it's Christmas and you get to have a real, down on the farm, Christmas experience. Either way, walking in the door, the first smell that hits you is baking pies! Grandma makes her own pies, from scratch, dough and all. With the extra dough, she makes these small cinnamon and sugar bites which are so good, I crave them (like right now). We always have something different for dinner but it's always excellent and each family contributes something. After dinner, the men watch football and talk farming or hunting. The women sit around the table chatting like women do. Uncle Warren, however, falls asleep on the couch and snores. Now my cousin, RJ, has also begun this tradition. It's quite comical to see! We open gifts at Grandma's too and the most traditional thing there is that we all get a scratcher ticket for the lottery. Sometimes we win but most of the time we lose. Still, it's fun!
We trek back home later in the evening, stuffed to the brim with lunch, coffee, and pie and usually find something to watch on tv while messing with our gifts. After Christmas day, it's time for things to get back to normal in our home. The tree gets put away (sometimes sooner than later, sometimes later than sooner) and the movies go with it. We go to bed early, tired from excitement and the food coma.
On December 26th, the countdown for next year begins!
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