A Wandering Family: Christmas traditions

The tree is up, the apartment is decorated, the music is on, the gifts are wrapped, and it's -40 outside. It's time for Christmas. Yeah! I love this time of year.

My family always did it up big and fun. I remember as kids we would pile in the car one Saturday and drive out to the Christmas tree farm and usually spend a few hours picking out that perfect tree. Dad would then cut it down, load it up, and we would drive back home singing Christmas carols. Then we would spend the next few hours decorating it while listening to Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas", Andy Williams with "It's the Most Wonderful Time of Year", and Alabama singing "Christmas in Dixie".

Once the tree was done and the stockings hung up by the chimney with care, we would sit down to hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies. Whether it was "Frosty the Snowman", "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", or "It's a Wonderful Life" were all favorites. Of course we would do the traditional baking and shopping which, I think, isn't as fun for the parents as it is for the kids.

Then came Christmas Eve. We had a tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve (because as kids you just couldn't wait another day). We would sing 12 days of Christmas, eat Christmas cookies, and watch Christmas movies until late (I mean, come on, we weren't going to sleep anyway). My brother and sisters usually slept in the same room and waited all night for Santa to come. When we couldn't wait any longer (which was usually about 4 am) we would sneak downstairs to see if Santa had come. If he had we would rush into mom and dad's room to get them up so we could start opening up gifts. They would usually shoo us back into our rooms until about 6 or 7. Of course, by then, we had already surveyed the gifts determining which gift belonged to which kid.

Then, all that waiting would come to a end as we ripped into the gifts with such excitement. Then crash. And spend all day with our new toys.

Of course, as we grew up, traditions changed but Christmas remained just as big and just as fun. Getting together with my mom's side of the family became a tradition. We would rent a cabin near Gatlinburg, TN for a week and spend time eating, playing games, going shopping, eating, going for hikes, eating, and eating.

The outlet malls were always overrun with people and sales. The restaurants were overflowing, and the ski lifts always had that one person to fall out and sprain their ankle stopping the lift from running until someone could help that poor soul out of the way (Tim):)

And the baking cookies turned into getting together with my cousins and making a gingerbread house. That turned into a tradition that my sisters and I expanded into entering our gingerbread houses into competitions (winning first place at the NC State Fair). And then eventually, going to a national gingerbread competition (although we did not win we still had a lot of fun doing it).

Now we kids have kids of our own. Thanks to our parents we are starting the same traditions with them. Although I am all the way over here in Russia, enjoying Christmas with my kids and husband, I will always hold a special place in my heart for those Christmas memories. I remember that song "Christmas Memories" by Alabama and I start to tear up but then I remember how much fun I will have giving those memories to my kids. Thanks mom and dad for giving us those memories.

Merry Christmas to all of you and hope you enjoy this time of year where ever you are. Here are some pictures of my fun family:

My brother Tim