Traditions and Counting Down

One of the true joys of Christmas is family traditions.  Looking back when I was growing up, several come to mind -- my mom's fruitcake for one.  She made a fruitcake around the 1st of December and it was "seasoned" in bourbon until Christmas.  Everyone loved it.  Supposedly even those who claimed to dislike fruitcake, loved her fruitcake.  I was never one of those fans, although I did like picking the pecans off the top and eating them. I have her recipe but have never made it. Mike is the only one who would like it.

Speaking of pecans, that brings up another memory.  My dad was an insurance man and had a LOT of customers. Forty years in the same business does that.  Anyway, every year he would bring home a sack or two - paper garbage bag size - of pecans.  He would watch tv in the evenings and shell them.  It was usually one for the jar, one for him, one for me.  He would end up with several containers of pecans, and Mom used them in oatmeal cookies, pecan pie, and of course, fruitcake.
Another memory is mistletoe.  We always had mistletoe.  And my grandmother's coconut cake.  And leaving cookies and milk for Santa and having a "thank you" note written on the napkin.  Santa's handwriting was remarkably a  lot like my dads.  Isn't is funny the things that spark memories for us.

This is the first time we have ever had a real tree.  We left our fake one back in MA. It was a white fiber optic gaudy looking tree - but it was picked out by one of the kids and they loved our disco tree. After several years it was a bit ragged.  It was time to forgo that little "tradition" and start a new one. When the kids were younger we had lots of winters when nebulizers were our best friend and we were concerned a live tree would aggravate the situation.  I am thankful to report the only neb user the past couple of seasons was me with the idiot H1N1 flu.  You know, the flu I couldn't get a shot for because I wasn't in the "high risk group.  Anyway, so far so good.  Aside from the tree sharing a special trait with the leaning tower of Pisa and the fact we haven't unearthed a lot of our ornaments from the move, all is well.
I wonder if the kids will remember the first time we had a real tree.

I know my kids will remember THIS tradition.  We've done advent calenders with the little pieces of chocolate, red and green paper chains to countdown, opening a new Christmas theme book each evening to read, an advent wall hanging where you move the decorations each night, but by far their favorite is the "Christmas Countdown Box."  The end of November I start collecting small fun and varied gifts - 24 of them.  I wrap each one and number them 1 to 24.  A bowl holds scraps of paper 1-24. Each evening a child draws a number and then finds the corresponding gift. This was a great tool for learning to wait until YOUR day. Often times the gifts were gifts to share.

There's been three Hershey bars, a jar of green sprinkles, a dog treat, a Wimpy Kid book, a snow globe, 2 ornaments, an Angry Bird plush toy (that has turned into a soccer ball of sorts) and body powder.

You just never know what you're going to get. 

My boy was just giddy with one of his recent prizes.  Something right up his alley.

Everyone loves being able to scrub their own back.
Ten more gifts to go.

Each year I remind the kids they are silly fun presents. Do they really want to do it again this year. I receive a resounding yes.  So I guess this is our tradition.

Christmas will be here before you know it, ready or not.