The other day as I was pulling out my chocolate advent calendar Jim turns to me and says "Do you realize you get one of those things every year since I we started going out?" I replied "I've had one every year since I can remember, it's like a family tradition!" Which got me thinking what are you family traditions! Every family has one or two!
Mine are: Malanka (Ukrainian New Years) in Sarto with the family
Chocolate advent calendars
Jims are: Homemade EggMcmuffins on Christmas morning (his parents still do this, even though Christmas morning is now at my place)
** They don't have to be Christmas ones but those are the only ones I can really think of.. for now **
I used to have a few traditions, but they ended when my mom lost her sister and mom. That happened 5 and 6 yrs ago, and we are still struggling to find our holidays again. All my sisters and I are in relationships now, too, so we have new families to work in to it all.
I am back to wanting to decorate for the holidays, it's a must I need to have a Christmas tree. Jim would be more content without one. I informed him that no matter what, I refuse to go one Christmas without a tree.
Things my family used to do would be drive around and look for houses that went crazy with the decorating. I MUST have Christmas music playing when I put up the tree and do the decorating. And then there's all the Christmas shows and movies that I try to not miss.
I am starting new ones with my new situation.
sad to say, most of mine are gone. the one that first comes to mind for me is family dinners before my grandmother and grandfather died is, we used to have a big family dinner every sunday. my grandparents had 7 kids. 3 boys and 4 girls and they had 13 grandchildren. Up until the time i was like 16 and my gramps passed away, my grandmother would make a big pasta dinner for the whole family over once a week. took alot of effort for my grams but everybody had a great time. since they're not here the tradition pretty much died off, and the family got more distant. They talk over the phone, text or facebook, but i miss the way it used to be
I did my tradition on Tuesday. Every year I go to the Strip district in Pittsburgh, it's like two streets with all kinds of markets, and I load up on cheese, bread, coffee, tea and meats, take a bunch home and the rest I take to my parents in Harrisburg for Christmas.
That is about it. But I enjoy it.