Warm and Fuzzy Family Traditions Satisfy

A week from today my Christmas visitors will be arriving, all 17 of them. Yes, there will be 19 people here, sleeping in various and sundry areas of my home, including my husband and me. Is that a little bit overwhelming at this point? Yep. (Especially since I'm still decorating the living room and have yet to wrap even one of the many gifts stashed away in our guest room.) BUT...Am I feeling way more excited than overwhelmed at this point? You bet I am!

I happen to be a great lover of holiday traditions, and I was hoping that if I shared some of ours, you might reciprocate. It's always a good thing to get new ideas, right? And it's also kinda fun to peek in on someone else's celebratory silliness, sentiment, and spirituality. (If you're like us, you have plenty of all three!)

At our house, it all begins on the 23rd, when the men make the women a big batch of artichoke chicken fusilli pasta. I can't even tell you how good it is. Somehow, my husband was able to wheedle the recipe away from Willow Street Pizzeria so the Young Men in our ward could make a Valentine's Day dinner for their mothers several years ago. Of course, it turned out wonderfully, and we have been making the yummy dish ever since. (Or rather, my husband has...which is probably at least half of the reason why I love it so much!)

Christmas Eve is BIG for us. Maybe even bigger than Christmas Day. Everyone scurries around getting last-minute things done until 5 PM, when they are expected to be home. Believe it or not, we eat Mexican food, which is something I came up with when my kids were little so I wouldn't have to be in the kitchen all night long. Surprisingly, it stuck! (One year, I tried to make prime rib and yorkshire pudding with mashed potatoes and the kids and their cousins nearly had fits. "No. We eat Mexican food!" they reminded me.) *sigh* Anyway, my brother-in-law makes nachos with homemade guacamole (yummy stuff). My daughter-in-law makes the best chicken and cheese enchiladas you'll ever taste, and I make the chicken and beef tacos with refried beans. Sometimes we add taquitos.

After we're stuffed to that barely bearable level only Mexican food can produce, we hit the living room and assume our traditional places on the couch, chairs, and carpet. (Just like at church, everyone has sort of claimed a spot of their own over the years. This is also true for the present-opening on Christmas Day.) The first half of our program is the same every year and involves reading certain poems, singing certain songs, kids' nativity, etc. The second half is what we call "circletime" (explained in detail here), where I begin by reading a Christmas story I've written just for that night. After reading it, I ask a soul-searchingly spiritual question or two to the group (as you can imagine, the guys LOVE this, heehee), and we go around the circle "sharing." Incredibly, our men are willing to do this because it's (yep!) tradition. This is my favorite part of our holiday, hands down. And I think everyone else kinda likes it, too. (Though few admit it, which has somehow become part of the tradition.) When all of us have spilled our guts––or laughed and cried them out––we leave cookies, milk, and carrots for Santa and his reindeer; go out to "hear" the bells on Santa's sleigh; and then adjourn to the family room to watch A Muppet Christmas Carol, which most of us have memorized. Quoting lines with the movie is acceptable, and singing all of the songs at the top of your lungs is required. Needless to say, we get to bed late.

And we rise ridiculously early, every blessed one of us beyond bleary-eyed. (This is a rule.) Christmas Day marks the present-opening and homemade-by-my-mom-and-stepfather-tea-ring-eating. We sit in a circle and open our presents one at a time, so everyone can check out what everyone else got, all the while eating the most delicious pastry known to man, the melts-in-your-mouth-and-sticks-to-your-hands variety. I can taste its warm, butter-and-almond-paste-oozing splendor now, just thinking about it! The present-opening ritual takes a looooong time, and when we're finished, we have turkey and ham sandwiches (warm out of the oven) on my mom's wonderful oatmeal bread, yours truly's signature Waldorf salad, the infamous but ever-popular "grapefruit stuff," and pumpkin pie. Again, this meal originated out of my desire to avoid the kitchen as much as possible during the festivities.

The rest of the day is spent trying on and modeling new clothes, playing with new toys, etc. etc. And it is sheer heaven, by the way, complete with towers of lovely white gift boxes. (By the way, the day after Christmas our family takes an early morning hike and spends the day in San Francisco.)

Can you tell that I love Christmas? I do. But not half as much as I love the family that helps make it so meaningful. (They'll be here in JUST ONE WEEK!)

Yikes. What am I doing on the computer?!

=)