Christmas Traditions

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Memory Lane 


Christmas. Oh my gosh where do I even begin!? My brain is overwhelmed with memories of Christmas time with my family. When Matt first met me, I'm pretty sure I blew his mind when we spent our first Christmas together. Lights, ornaments, a REAL TREE, stockings, pine scents, cinnamon…..I could go on and on. As crazy and dramatic as my family may seem at times, they did Christmas right. It was always one incredible fiasco and I am so blessed to have experienced the holidays the way I did.

Christmas traditions began the day after Thanksgiving. After spending dinner together, we met again the next day to trek to the mountains. Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, pets-the whole entourage in a caravan. We'd go sledding, eat, build snowmen, and most importantly, find our Christmas tree. Fake trees were out of the question growing up and purchasing from a tree farm? Definitely a no-no. The men in my family were going to chop that tree down for goodness sakes! How in the world did we keep a real tree alive from the weekend after Thanksgiving until well after Christmas? SUGAR WATER. Seriously, it'll keep the tree alive and well.

My family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve. Before leaving for the family gathering, my sisters and I would get to open ONE present. It was always brand new PJs to wear that night. We all go to one of my uncle's houses the kids run around, the adults do their whatever their adult things were (usually karaoke)…and at midnight, we'd attend midnight mass as a family. I have no idea how in the world our parents kept us presentable for church at midnight after all that running around, but somehow they managed. After mass, one of my uncles (usually pretty drunk by now) would dress up as Santa and hand out presents to all the kiddos. That's right, none of this waiting until Christmas morning for presents. We would have Christmas Eve dinner, go to church, then open presents at 2 in the morning. It was an all night party and I wouldn't have it any other way. After all that excitement would die down, we'd pull out the sleeping bags and all have one huge family slumber party. The following morning, Santa- probably the not drunk kind and more like the Aunt kind-had filled our stockings with MORE presents that we'd open first thing. These stockings….we all had knitted stocking with our names stitched on them.  At 30 years old, mine still hangs on our mantle. By mid afternoon we'd part ways to spend Christmas in the more tradition sense of the word as smaller family units.

I have the most amazing memories with my family. And not just with my immediate family, but my ENTIRE family. Aunts and uncles  weren't just parents' sibling. A lot of the time were just friends of my parents or aunts and uncles and I really had no idea who I was actually related to. And we did everything together. Camping trips, holidays, BBQs, birthdays, the list goes on. I was truly blessed to have grown up with a huge boisterous adventurous family.

I know I'll struggle to find ways to introduce Jellybean to that kind of life. Matt's family is all the way in Hawaii and scattered throughout Oregon, California, and Ohio. My family's mostly in Portland and Seattle. The three of us? Well, who knows where the military will take us but there's a good chance it will be far way from them. It breaks my heart that Jellybean won't grow up with cousins and loud aunts and uncles looking after him. I don't exactly hate the small family concept but at the same time, I feel like it's seriously missing an important element to growing up. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and I love that idea. I wish my kiddo and future kiddo(s) could grow up with that village. We'll eventually settle in Washington and much closer to family; however, for now….we're going to have to create our own traditions and I pray that Jellybean will look back on those traditions with as much fondness and gratitude as I do when I think of Christmas time with my crazy family. As I write this, my mom and sisters are blowing up my text stream with plans for this Christmas' adventures.




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