Traditional Tastes

Christmas is this weekend. WEEEE!

In my family, our Christmas was always celebrated on Christmas Eve at my mom's house.
Those nights are so memorable for me for many obvious reasons.
Since we have had our son, we celebrate at my home and mom and brother come to us. I love having everyone over but there is always the feeling that something is missing. It's just not like at mom's house ;-)

Its all different now, but only because its a new tradition that takes getting used to. Also, my house tends to be a "tad" more chaotic than the calming lure of a mother's home. Also, my mom decorated the shit out of her house! Like, from the tree of course to changing her hanging pictures so that they were winter or Christmas photos! WHAT??!!! Oh ya, it was straight up Christmas in our house.

I can barely get my husband to take out our ONE Christmas tote to begin to decorate. But, some things will never change, it doesn’t matter where we celebrate.
For instance, my mom HATES, HATES and I mean HATES the movie "A Christmas Story." So naturally, my brother and I insist on having the 24 hour TBS feed playing at all times in the background on the TV. And about every 20 minutes we giggle when she grits her teeth and says, "turn that stupid movie off." Ha ha ha, never gets old. I just saw the commercial the other night mentioning the 24 hour marathon and secretly got a devilish feeling inside me that felt excited to torture my mom! What kind of daughter am I?!?!

Another thing that will never change is eating little smokies that night. YUM! I would seriously feel deprived if I could not eat those on Christmas Eve.

Another tradition is opening all of our gifts on Christmas Eve. SO FUN! One of the main reasons I love this tradition is because I like the feeling of opening gifts at night! Some recent Christmas mornings have not been a winter wonderland. Instead they were sunny, slushy and almost spring days. That’s not CHRISTMAS! But at night, all of that spring sunny lameness goes away, and everything is toasty and cozy- the way Christmas SHOULD feel. Then, Santa brings MORE for the morning. Its like a double dose of Christmas!

There are times where I thought it would be nice to go to the midnight service at St. Peters Church. But honestly, I like having my wine on Christmas Eve, and being there might ruin my buzz. Bad girl for even thinking that- I KNOW! Judge me now. But that does not mean my family doesn’t know the meaning of Christmas.

No wine for me this year L I have baby number 2 coming in about 4 weeks and apparently wine during pregnancy is frowned upon. So I will waddle around my house this year, picking up wrapping paper and reminding myself how lucky I am to have the most important people in the world to me share my home. I love this time of year, and I love the traditions that have come from it.

What are some of your favorite Christmas Eve or Christmas Day traditions?? I would love to hear them and why they are so special to you.

Merry Christmas to you and next year….this girl his getting her hot-buttered rum on!

Oh and holy crap! I almost forgot one of the best Christmas traditions of ALL TIME!

NATIONAL LAMPOON”S CHRISTMAS VACATION! Heck yes!

Seriously, this movie is stellar and if you are too lazy to post your favorite tradition, you at least have to post your favorite quote from the movie!

Love each of you!

Seriously mom.....get on board with this ;-)