Christmas Traditions

This Christmas season has been a little different because we don’t have some of our stuff. We still have a storage unit in Bremerton, Washington, that has a bunch of books and items, along with is our Christmas stuff. We had every intention to have our stuff sent on, but time got away from us.

We have an artificial tree in storage. We did manage to get a nice little two foot tree on a stand with a snowman. We’re missing some real Christmas elements for me though right now. Christmas ornaments have always been a big part of Christmas. Every year, my two sisters and I got to pick out a new ornament at Frank’s Nursery and Crafts when we got our new tree from their real tree lot. Then my mom worked at Hallmark in Sandwich, Illinois, and we got tons of new ornaments every year. I still have them all. Every one. It is a remembrance to pick them out of their boxes every year. They are like good friends returning.

One of the rather new traditions that we don’t have this year is just a decoration. My Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer figures that came out a few years ago bring such a feeling of wonderment and family to me. They look just like the old CBS show that I love to see them. I remember watching it every year with my family. Now I watch it with my own family. Actually, with Madison’s recent destructive powers being two years old, it is probably a good thing that we don’t have those this year.

I absolutely have to have a dessert on Christmas morning called torte. Chocolate torte. It is this cake that my mother always got every year through Swiss Colony or Figi’s. Amy and I also buy a real gourmet coffee for Christmas morning to enjoy our torte with.

We were never allowed to wake our parents up until 7:00 am. This is a tradition that I have kept alive. I remember many sleepless nights in eager anticipation for Christmas morning. I remember gathering all sorts of comic books and Christmas favorites for that evening, to read for most of the sleepless night.

There are probably more things that I am forgetting. Christmas is a wonderful link to the past and the future. I think about the traditions that my kids will keep. For instance, my mother probably never thought that the torte was that big a deal. It ended up being everything for my Christmas.