This is the perfect time of year to stop, reflect, and think about traditions. Not only are traditions prevalent in my world, but there are also cultural traditions that are embedded in the world I grew up in. Jill at Follow your Bliss is having a Celebration of Traditions today, so I thought I would join her and share a bit about traditions that are still alive within my family...(bunuelos below)
I have to say, some things never change. You see, my three siblings and I are not married people (and have never been married). I am the oldest, then there is my sister Kristen, and then my brother Adam. We have a mother and a father who have been married longer than each of them care to remember, hee hee. Of course, none of us live at home anymore, but, we all hop in our cars and drive to our parents home, for the holidays. It is so wonderful and quite funny how when we get to our parents home, it is almost like we never left. WE all have our rooms there, we all play and carry on.
My dad plays his Christmas music. Bing Crosby always, and on repeat.
I think I could sing you melikalikimaka backwards. Anyhow, the traditions are a plenty, but there is one that has been excatly the same our whole lives... Santa always visits us & leaves our gifts while we sleep. ALWAYS. I used to be the one to wake up first and wake up my brother and sister. But, last year, the munchkin boy woke up first, which woke up this munchkin girl, we grabbed our munchkin sister and to the living room we tiptoed at 5:30 a.m.
On Christmas eve we always have an outrageous formal dinner in my mom's dining room after mass. Mass is in the most amazing Catholic church in the village I grew up in. It is quaint and majestic all at once. Sometimes my mom's youngest sister & her husband, come over with their children for dinner. The town lights from my parents house are marvelous. Way in the distance, the lights you see are in Mexico...
On Christmas morning when we wake up, there are gifts cookies candies! But best of all, candied ham, scalloped potatoes, rolls and such are left over from the dinner before. The whole thing is a deja vu moment over and over every year. I love it!!
I am in the country right now, so I don't have all my pictures of us as kids with me... I will share a few someday... Needless to say, we have the same Christmas day that we had as children. I think that highly influences our creative sides. We all have a love of magical and childlike things. But it is mainly because our childlike selves have never been squashed. As a matter of fact, that side of us is constantly nurtured... A blessing in itself...
After we open all of our gifts we sit around eating and talking. Drinking coffee... Exchanging gifts Santa did not bring... Last, we get dressed and go to my Grandma and Grandpa's house (mom's parents). Where we have been having the same Christmas there every year since birth. There is Menudo and Tamales abound. My grandmother Josephina (people call her Pini), makes her own Menudo and Tamales. She is so chic yet will do anything in the name of making her traditional food. There will also be a huge pot of amazing beans on this stove she cooks on...
She has a regular stove and such, but she prefers this stove. I will always remember her, putting on her mit, to lift the wood trap with her special cast iron tool, slowly putting in pieces of wood from a pile my grandfather had made for her... Through that little white oven door you will always find mexican buttered breads, ready for dunking in your menudo, or for slathering with beans...
Oh, and as you can imagine, my mom has been in her studio creating away, and I hear the tree is red red red this year!!! (Photos of tree above are from last year) She has a fun crazy studio! I guess you know where the love of creating comes from now...
She says she has been decorating for a whole week non stop! I can't wait to see it!!! I will make sure to take many more photos this year to share!!! ;)
That is the tip of the iceberg of the Holiday tradtions in this family... The kids from yesterday might be grown up, but they still play. Blissful holiday tradtions make us all so content... I hope the children in our family today, have as many memories to bottle up as I did... From the looks of it below, they will.... (don't worry, it is the gift opening that has her exhausted, she was not sampling the wine, I hope!!!)
PS: Party here on Tuedsay December 11th. My Birthday! Bring a cake, bring glitter, bring streamers, but by golly, bring yourself!! Help me celebrate!! 32 years!
