Pictures, pictures galore!

[surprisingwoman]

How cool!

**insert the singing of the Fiddler on the Roof song, Tradition here**

I LOVE tradition.

[jane]

me too. i have all sorts of family traditions at christmas i can't wait!

[BeiNtelligentLater]

jane please share your favorite traditions. In fact, it would be cool for everyone to share some. I will start.
1. Having a chocolate orange at the toe of your stocking.
2. Eating Christmas Bread while you open presents.
3. Having the youngest serve as santa and handing out presents. Then we open them one at a time in order. The best part of Christmas is watching others open gifts (at least for me).
4. Recently, chasing our neices off to bed on Christmas Eve because XM shows that santa is on the way to California!!!!

[jane]

1. going over to my second cousins house where all the extended family gathers and we have santa come for the little kids and give them gifts. we used to play pollyanna too.
2. gathering with my aunts and uncles and cousins at my grandmothers house on christmas eve, where we give each other gifts and eat yummy food and even have stockings.
3. waking up on christmas morning and going out into the living room where we video tape ourselves opening our presents one at a time, just like bnlaters family does.
4. having chocolate chip pancakes on christmas morning.
5. traveling all around with my dad and stepmom to different family members houses where we open presents, eat and look at everyones christmas decorations.
6. putting on christmas music and decorating the tree as a family.
7. eating my stepmoms fudge and pizza balls that she only makes once a year
8. buying gifts for like 40 of my friends and family( i LOVE giving gifts!!!)
9. getting/sending christmas cards
10. watching christmas movies and listening to christmas music all of December. and january for that matter. i keep my tree up as long as i possibly can.
11. those christmas calendars that count down to christmas with little movable magnets or something of that nature.

ok i think there are more but i'll stop now

[mobitz]

Fudge and pizza balls

or

Fudge balls and Pizza balls


Either way, I am interested......

[Jessica]

Mmmmmm, fudge!

1. Christmas Eve always goes like this: baking during the day and last minute grocery shopping, candle church service at 6 pm, up to Tuzzi's to give her kids my gifts, then over to my brother's place where the whole family meets to play games, have a few drinks and eat greasy fried appetizers.

2. My favourite part of Christmas morning is breakfast. We put on a huge spread of cheeses, meats, buns, cinnimon buns, tomatoes, fresh fruit, and champagne with orange juice. We get it all out, then eat while we slowly open gifts. We open gifts one person, one present, at a time. It takes us hour, but we love it!

Then the rest of the day is spent lounging and preparing for Christmas dinner, and usually more games, more drinks, then around midnight we bust out left overs fom dinner and eat again! Then boxing day we normally get a good game of road hockey going. And I take down my tree and pack it away!

I so love Christmas!

[jane]

lol, mob they are two separate entities. it's

fudge

and

pizza balls

and they are both utterly amazing

[binskki]

In no particular order:

Baking houska (pronounced "HOHska" - Czech bread similar to challah but with golden raisins, a bit of lemon zest in the dough, and usually sliced almonds on top, in a 5-strand braid) and then toasting and eating it on Christmas morning. Mmmmmmmmmm!

Watching the kids open their presents.

Sitting by the tree and enjoying the ridiculous number of little white lights I put on it - preferably with a roaring fire going.

The Peanuts Christmas special.

Hearing from friends I haven't heard from in a while.

Thinking of clever prezzies for people.

Christmas carols. Yes, really. I love to sing.

A Christmas Carol.

I could be Scrooge-like and say, not having to eat Christmas dinner with my ex-in-laws and listen to them trash all the people that they know...okay, I guess I just was Scroogelike. But really, isn't Christmas a time to try to keep a heart full of joy towards everyone? It is for me, anyhow. It really helps me not to have to listen to all that negative stuff.

I hope the holidays bring some of that joy to all of you!

[BeiNtelligentLater]

I love this thread. Pizza balls..................now those sound interesting. jane would your step mom be willing to share her recipe? BTW I love that more people open their presents one at a time, I know it takes longer, but 99% of my fun at Christmas is watching others open their presents! On Christmas Eve we do Bob's whole family and Bob plays Santa (he is the oldest male) and reaches under the tree and gives out presents one at a time. It teaches the little one patience!!!

[surprisingwoman]

We do it one at a time too, taking turns. The kids always have more so they go more often. Kent and I don't actually do presents for each other. We just do for the kids.

Every Christmas eve I wear a wreath on my head (ala the ghost of Christmas present) and that has become such a huge tradition that if I don't wear it to Kent's family's house his BIL get bummed. We spend every Christmas eve at Kent's sister's where we all have dinner together and open our presents we draw names for at Thanksgiving.

Christmas time is movie time for me. I have White Christmas, Holiday Inn, Holiday Affair, Christmas in Connecticut (the original), Scrooge (the musical), Oliver, It's a Wonderful Life, Desk Set... and they are all in heavy rotation.

We always have prime rib for dinner on Christmas. It depends on the kids schedule for when we do what. It's all good though.

I think one of the more fun things we do is rating decorations. Miranda and I started a tradition of driving around looking at Christmas lights. We then proceed to rate them from A-F on the job they did. We can be very flattering or quite snarky, depending on the decor. Madelyn has jumped right into the spirit of the rating and so now anytime we go anywhere we have to talk about all the lights we see. That's a lot of fun. She is so funny.

[no nickname, just Andrea]

DESK SET!!!

"...the Mexican avenue bus..."

I love that movie!!!

What about just plain "Holiday", surprising? With Kathrine Hepburn and Cary Grant? That is a great movie, too.

[BeiNtelligentLater]

surprising I have not been out trolling for Christmas decorations for some time, but my son and I used to do that a lot when he was younger. I don't do a lot on the outside, since for a good portion of his growing up it was just the two of us, and I was not going to crawl around the roof by myself. But I am fascinated with stuff that others do, although some is just so over the top that it makes me laugh. Personally I need to win a lotter and do a whole outside from Frontgate, they have some awesome stuff.

[surprisingwoman]

Spencer Tracey seems so warm and so delightful in Desk Set. I love watching the interplay between them and seeing her snort when she laughs about the "Mexican avenue" bus. So funny.

I love the movie Holiday too. Such a great cast. Edward Everett Horton is probably my favorite character from that era. So great. When Cary Grant does the back flips and you can just see the yearning in Katharine Hepburn's face...."My she was yar." (quote from another classic) I have a ton of aurora borealis necklaces and when I see Holiday I want to get dressed up and put on my crystals. So gorgeous.

[no nickname, just Andrea]

Another favorite scene of mine from Desk Set is when Spencer Tracy is leaving her apartment and he comes back from the entryway with his shirt all untucked and collar up on his coat, etc... Oh how that scene will make me laugh every time!

Don't get me started on The Philadelphia Story!!!

[surprisingwoman]

I KNOW! When Spencer comes in acting all tipsy and goofy.... he really could be quite charming. Most of the time I look at him and wonder what she saw there.... then you get a flash of that brilliance and you know.

So many great movies. I have a feeling if we lived closer there would be popcorn and DVD's in our future. I could watch them all day. (and when I am in the kitchen that's what I do)