Everyone has their own Christmas traditions and special holiday moments. Well, this Christmas was extra special for my family, and to honor that, here are five of my favorite things about this Christmas:
- Cookie Baking! I’m not sure if other families are like mine, but we have always made a ton of cookies. This year, we ended up with at least eight different kinds and a total of 18.5 batches. I think. Granted, they’re for parties we go to and other family members, as well, but just like every year, it took days to make them all and we’re going to have many left over. I think it’s amazing that we cut back this year, and my mom made five pumpkin rolls, too. That just makes me wonder how many we made when I was younger. I love baking the cookies because it’s a time for me to just relax and only worry about getting the dough right and the cookies in and out of the oven on time. Some years my friends come over to help, but this year it was just my mom and me…and sometimes just me.
- Find The Pickle just got a lot more challenging. I don’t know if everyone has heard of this, but there’s a traditional little game of hiding a pickle in the Christmas tree, and if you find it, it’s good luck. My family doesn’t do it, but we go to a family friend’s Christmas Eve party every year and they always hang a fake pickle (or two) on the tree. It’s generally for kids, but anyone can look. My twin brother and I have been doing it since we were very small, but we’ve gotten really good. I found both of the regular-sized pickles in about two minutes, and so did he. However, they decided to make it difficult for us this year (since we refuse to admit we’re adults now); they added a pickle about the size of a quarter. It took me a good 45 minutes to find the thing. I’m already mentally preparing for next year.
- Christmas breakfast: New tradition? My family always did lunch for Christmas day, so we’d wake up and do presents and then make a bunch of food so it was ready when family arrived. Well, this year, we went to my brother’s girlfriend’s house for breakfast. That meant it was more like brunch since we didn’t eat until about 10:45, but that’s okay. I got to meet her family and their puppy. That meant our lunch got pushed back to 4:00 pm, making it an early dinner, but that was okay. We needed a bit of extra time to make food since the number of people coming to our house almost doubled this year.
- My mother broke her “no cash” rule. My older brother and I have this problem where we both need money for things. He’s going to take some classes again, and I need stuff to spend if all goes as planned and I get to study in Scotland this summer. Therefore, we could both use money, but my mother always said she refused to give us cash for Christmas because she enjoyed getting us real, tangible things. Well, this year my dad convinced her to do otherwise. So, on top of a small stack of tangible gifts, she gave both my brother and I some cash, which means he has an easier time paying for class and I get money to spend in Scotland. Traditions are nice, but it’s great to see someone breaking the “rules” once in a while.
- There was an engagement! My older brother is currently 28. My twin brother and I are 19. The obvious choice for the engagement would be my older brother, but no. Christmas morning, at her house during the breakfast, my twin brother took his girlfriend to her room and asked her to marry him. She said yes! So, I have an official future sister-in-law, and that’s extremely exciting, even though the plan isn’t for them to get married for about another four years. His now-fiancé was impressed that basically everyone knew except her, including people that aren’t even family.
So, that was my Christmas! I hope yours went well and wish you happy holidays.
-Danielle-
Leave a Reply