tradition #2!

While we have managed to maintain the "cabbage roll-snow" tradition with some minor adjustments, i don't know how the other traditions are going to hold up in the coming season, much less the coming years.

We have for the past years followed a number of holiday practices that we may have outgrown. :o(

1. New Pajamas. I've made new pajamas for everyone in the family (maman, daddy, alessandra, christian) for Christmas every year for as long as we've been a family. Some years, the kids' pjs match. One year, the whole family had matching pjs. We open the pjs on Christmas Eve. This not only gives us a gift to open the night before (yay!) but makes for cuter pics in the morning when everyone is opening gifts in cute jammies instead of the ratty pjs that they may have otherwise worn (yay#2!). This year, however, Joe has already told me not to make him pjs as he already has too many pj pants. And Alessandra has similarly said t hat she has "so many pjs that i cannot close my drawer". So, she doesn't want Christmas pjs either. And, with the kids getting older and bigger, the cute flannel patterns are losing out to plaid and other more "adult" designs. So, we'll see what i end up doing. I will likley end up just making pjs anyway to follow the tradition and then letting them donate them or not wear them. This morning, as i'm writing this blog, the kids came down to breakfast. Christian wearing the camo pants and t-shirt in which he slept (and wore all day yesterday, ick), Alessandra in the work-out shorts and cami that she wore all afternoon and night. Why make cute pjs when they're comfy wearing old clothes day-to-night-to-day (they will both stay in pjs most of the day while inside doing homework or reading or surfing the 'net)? Tradition.

2. We also have a tradition of the Christmas Eve dinner. Pancakes. Bacon. Coffee/cocoa. Fruit. It's all kinds of yummy but i don't know that the kids are that eager to keep this tradition either. I guess with my making pancakes and "fancy breakfast" more often than just holidays, it's not so much a "treat". We don't do the Christmas Morning spread that my Grandma Amy used to do because there just isn't the time or energy to make schnecken and homemade oatmeal bread and Wolfe Eggs (don't even get me started on that). We've had "orphans " (see Thanksgivng) for the past couple Christmas Eves but won't this year. Everyone has paired off and we haven't made new friends.

3. Christmas Day Movie. We have also developed a routine on Christmas Day of receiving a Christmas Disney/Pixar movie and watching it, all together, in our Christmas clothes (or pjs). This year, we're a little too old for a Disney/Pixar film. And i don't know that buying a film is the best way to go anyway. With little kids, films get watched again and again and again. Little Mermaid, Pooh, Beauty and the Beast, etc. With 13 and 15yo, the films are really just a once or twice event. Who (besides Christian) wants to see Predator or Top Gun more than once or twice? So, it would be better to just rent from NetFlix and return it. So much for the tradition of anticipating opening the new Christmas Movie Time.

4. Clothes. Christian only wears camouflage. Alessandra only wears those items that she deems worthy (and i cannot, absolutely cannot tell what makes for a "good" item over a "ick" item, much to my chagrin). Buying clothes for either of them is a losing proposition. So....no new clothes this year at all. Maybe socks and underwear (boxers!) for him. Cannot even choose what are acceptable undies or socks for her.

5. Toys. What is a fun time in ToysRUs before the holidays, looking at the year's "must have" toys for a 4yr old is decidedly less so for a teen. They need and want nothing. We've already purchased Alessandra's "big gift" and have chosen but not yet purchased Christian's. After the "big gift", there is little else to purchase. There is a big difference between a Barbie Dream House ($25) and a new 16gig IPod (lots more $$). The boxes get smaller and the dollar costs get larger. The big opening of the Christmas gifts goes very quickly. Maybe we'll get two Christmas movies this year.

Off to finish making breakfast for my still-half-asleep teens. And to see which traditions they want to keep and which/how to tweak them this year.