Christmas Traditions

Recently, one of my Facebook friends asked me what my Christmas traditions are. I had to think about that for a bit. Of course, my family does the usual opening of the gifts and gathering with family. But did we have any traditions we could call our own? Turns out we do. This morning, I had the chance to identify some of them.

1. Making sure we don't starve to death. Laugh if you will, but the Remlers take this tradition seriously. That's because several years ago, Stephen and I neglected to go to the grocery store prior to the big day. We had been invited to Kelley's house for Christmas Eve dinner, then to Bob's house for Christmas dinner, then to JoJo's house for the day after Christmas. With all those invitations to eat out, who needed to grocery shop? Well, no one, as long they didn't plan to eat breakfast or lunch. That's where we dropped the ball. Christmas day started out as jolly as usual, but when noontime came around, two little boys started asking for food, and Stephen and I had let the cupboard go bare. I think we lunched on peanut butter crackers that day.

But not this year. We loaded up our grocery cart on December 23rd, and we planned big meals for morning, noon and night. Our Christmas Eve dinner was ribeye steaks. This morning, in addition to our usual pigs in blankets (another Christmas tradition), Stephen prepared waffles for Davis, pancakes for Lawson and eggs for me. For lunch, we ate light, opting for a nicely seared Ahi tuna and pineapple. Then for dinner, we ate standing rib roast, green bean casserole, baked potatoes, seven layer salad and rolls. To top it off, Lawson got an ice cream churn for Christmas, so we also enjoyed some homemade double chocolate chip! Yum!

2. Texting: A tradition of the new millennium, this form of communication works well with our extended family. Sabra, Harley, Skippy and Hugh live far away, and we're all busy gifting, cooking, and traveling to see other relatives. Sure, we call each other, but often at inconvenient times, so frequently texting is a concise, quick means of wishing each other a joyous Noel.

3. Removing decorations: Call us Scrooges, but at least go lenient in that we wait until dark-thirty before participating in this tradition. And we have good reason. What with the annual tree burning that takes place on Boxing Day (which you'll read about tomorrow), we must remove the tree ornaments Christmas night. Still, inspired by Stephen Remler's "Christmas is over" December 26th attitude, we're all willing to take down the red bows and garland the night of the 25th.

4. Burning stuff. It wouldn't be Christmas without a big fire (weather permitting, of course--two years ago, we were in the back yard in shorts playing ladder golf, so we opted to do without a blaze). Devoted Remlerville readers already know we're a bunch of pyromaniacs. We keep a fire going in our fire place, but something must be done about all the cardboard and torn up wrapping paper. That's where the backyard fire pit comes in. We realize we're just one errant spark away from a Chevy Chase movie, though, so we watch it closely.

So those are our Christmas traditions, absurd as they are. They work for us. Merry Christmas to all!