Every year when talking about the holidays I will drop words like Epiphany, Kris Kringle and Kings Cake only to have baffled looks from people I am talking to. My family celebrates a little weird, no big shock there, we do everything a little weird. Many of our traditions come out of necessity, being the 7th of 9 children it makes very little sense to buy a gift for every sibling. Some of our traditions just came out of us being us. To explain last year I made a comic on Bitstrips, you can see the whole comic by clicking on the thumbnail.
As with many families we are growing and spreading out. Most of my family is back in NY, one section is in CT and my husband and I are in Canada. This makes the holidays interesting. This year was my grandmother’s 100th birthday and so we all (except my mom, then pregnant sister and niece who had to run track for college) traveled down to florida for it. We had a great time but it meant my husband spent the days he would have spent on Epiphany off work on that, also, we spent the money we would have paid to travel on that. Still, we are traveling, just not to my family. For Christmas we are spending it with his family in Ontario, and even better we are meeting our very good friend who lives in BC and spending all that time with him. Batman (the nickname online I use for this friend) is awesome and we miss him lots. Since he moved out to BC we don’t get to see him much so this will be a great trip. Already we are making plans for D&D and ShadowRun games, viewings of Tron (Original and the new one) and so forth. I can’t wait.
For Epiphany, I will be traveling to NY alone and while my husband really wants to go and be there this is one of the sacrifices we have to make. We have to get used to it, we live really far from both our families and he is in the military, so there are sacrifices to be made.
We have no need for a tree since we won’t be home, the lights, stockings and decorations will all stay in the box in the basement this year.
While some of my family and friends are celebrating Chanukah and others are getting their trees up and decking the halls I have been plotting and scheming. I love giving presents, LOVE it. This year we were able to get a lot of it done early, as of today there are only two gifts left I think to get. Oh, and presents for each other. My husband already knows what he is getting from me, and even though the money I was hoping to pay for it didn’t come in yet, I think I am still getting it for him. A PS3, it’s a big gift, it costs way more then I should be spending, but, it will make him happy and I’m amazed he held out this long on buying one. I will need to have something for him to open on Christmas though, a trinket of some sort. Other then that, my plotting and scheming continues for the last two gifts, I love playing Santa.
What I hate doing is waiting to give people their presents, I want to give them now. More then getting anything I love giving presents, seeing people’s faces light up when they open something I know they’ll love. It makes me so happy to give them that smile.
So, what’s your favorite part of the season? What does your family do differently?
Loved hearing about this and re-reading your Xmas strip. =) You have some really interesting traditions — sounds like fun!I'm sure that PS3 will really put a shine in your hubby's eyes. My father-in-law and I went in together on getting one for Lars last year, and he was thrilled. Of course, it makes future gift-giving occasions a little easier for us, too, since now they need games to play on them, right? ;)Our "traditions" are pretty run-of-the-mill, really. Well, Lars and Pappa had some adjustments to make; in Norway, they were accustomed to giving gifts on Xmas Eve … but since that's my birthday, they've had to switch over to "the American way" and celebrate Xmas on Xmas Day instead. LOLBecause most of our relatives are either gone or are overseas, we usually have a pretty quiet holiday. And since all the kids are grown up now and halfway across the country, we indulge in behaving like kids ourselves. ;) The first order of the day is … PRESENTS! LOL We put on our Xmas music (Native American instrumental renditions of traditional Xmas tunes, if you can believe that — very tranquil), light the tree, grab coffee and our annual monster-sized batch of homemade gingerbread cookies, and get straight to the goodies.It isn't until all the presents have been opened (one at a time — gotta prolong the fun!) that we get around to fixing a "real" breakfast: our yearly Swiss Colony Xmas Breakfast, which consists of apple cinnamon pancakes and one or two selections of the various types of meat they include (sausages, bacons, ham, etc.). The rest of the day is usually spent then in just playing with whatever new toys we got. ;)And yes, like you, I love giving presents. =) It's not quite as much fun these days, since I'm not able to get out to the stores anymore and have to do all my shopping online. But I love to wrap them up, and then watch them being opened. And you're right: It is SO hard waiting for the day to come! LOL But I do get to give a few presents a little earlier, since Lars' birthday is also in December.Anyway … nothing as interesting as YOUR holiday traditions, but it suits us. =)
thank you so much for sharing that with me, I love it. My husband's family opens on Christmas Eve too, right after church, though I think last year we waited till the next morning because his sister just had a new baby. I wonder if it's a french thing for his family to open on christmas eveYour celebrations sound so cozy, I love it. I also love that you two get into the spirit and behave like children that is what the holidays are all about :)
Loved hearing about this and re-reading your Xmas strip. =) You have some really interesting traditions — sounds like fun!I'm sure that PS3 will really put a shine in your hubby's eyes. My father-in-law and I went in together on getting one for Lars last year, and he was thrilled. Of course, it makes future gift-giving occasions a little easier for us, too, since now they need games to play on them, right? ;)Our "traditions" are pretty run-of-the-mill, really. Well, Lars and Pappa had some adjustments to make; in Norway, they were accustomed to giving gifts on Xmas Eve … but since that's my birthday, they've had to switch over to "the American way" and celebrate Xmas on Xmas Day instead. LOLBecause most of our relatives are either gone or are overseas, we usually have a pretty quiet holiday. And since all the kids are grown up now and halfway across the country, we indulge in behaving like kids ourselves. ;) The first order of the day is … PRESENTS! LOL We put on our Xmas music (Native American instrumental renditions of traditional Xmas tunes, if you can believe that — very tranquil), light the tree, grab coffee and our annual monster-sized batch of homemade gingerbread cookies, and get straight to the goodies.It isn't until all the presents have been opened (one at a time — gotta prolong the fun!) that we get around to fixing a "real" breakfast: our yearly Swiss Colony Xmas Breakfast, which consists of apple cinnamon pancakes and one or two selections of the various types of meat they include (sausages, bacons, ham, etc.). The rest of the day is usually spent then in just playing with whatever new toys we got. ;)And yes, like you, I love giving presents. =) It's not quite as much fun these days, since I'm not able to get out to the stores anymore and have to do all my shopping online. But I love to wrap them up, and then watch them being opened. And you're right: It is SO hard waiting for the day to come! LOL But I do get to give a few presents a little earlier, since Lars' birthday is also in December.Anyway … nothing as interesting as YOUR holiday traditions, but it suits us. =)
That's a wonderful strip, all right. From what tradition or background does your family's celebration come?
it's not really a cultural thing, more necessity, traditionally early Christians would celebrate Epiphany and there are many cultures that still do. The Kings cake is a Scandinavian tradition I'm told.My family immigrated from Ireland and Germany but these traditions my parents came up with from different places.