traditions

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  What traditions do you have in your family??

I wish I could rattle off traditions I had growing up.  But frankly, Koreans don't do a lot to celebrate Christmas, and as my parents didn't even believe in Christmas, we did even less.  Even though I grew up with "Americans" in high school, I went home during the Christmas break, so I never really celebrated Christmas until my freshmen year in college.  I stayed the break with the Wolcotts, a wonderful Missionary in Residence familiy.  (MIRs - John Brown has a missionary family on furlough living close to campus who help and hang out with MKs.)  I didn't think much of Christmas, but quickly I realized that it was a big deal in the family.  I ended up receiving gifts from them, and felt bad that I didn't have any prepared for them.

The second year, I spent Christmas with my friend, Christy, and her family.  In her family, they bought unpainted ceramic ornaments and painted them every year for Christmas.  So I picked one out and painted one, and Christy gave me an ornament that she painted as a gift.  Again, I received gifts...

I think I spent all the rest Christmases with Kris' family.  They don't have any special traditions, just get together on Christmas day at his parents house, and all the relatives gather together for lunch & gifts.  Mom V usually decorates her tree just with blue lights, no ornaments, and her stair case with greenery.

When it was just Kris and I, what we did for Christmas didn't matter much.  I think we didn't even have a tree up most of the years.  We just stayed together, exchanged gifts, and went over to mom & dad's early and waited for the rest of the family.  But now that we have little ones, I really, really, I mean, REALLY, want to have some traditions.  Things that we do every year, things that kids remember Christmas by.  It makes me jealous to read all the other people's traditions, people who have grown up in them.  People who's families have had traditions for generations.  People who look forward to certain things every Christmas because, well, it's always been there.  People who's days before Christmas are full of crafts & baking.

I think we definitely want to do stockings on Christmas Eve and presents Christmas morning.  This year, we actually got stockings with everyone's names on them, and they are actually really really cute!  (Thanks, Walmart!)  I hope to have more traditions figured out by next year, when Alaise will be two years old.

(Let's just not make getting sick after Christmas lunch a tradition, okay?)