Entries in traditions (313)
5 days: something old, something new
Calvin gets a special new ornament from my parents every year. This is a tradition that started when I was young, the ornaments coming for Curtis and myself from our Aunt Cookie and Uncle Michael, world travelers with fabulous ornament taste. So upon becoming adults (did that happen?) and starting our own trees, Curtis and I already had a beautiful and meaningful ornament collection. Calvin's own collection started with his first Christmas, and unpacking our ornaments (my collection and his) every year is increasingly fun.
This year Calvin's ornament was a beautiful blown glass ball from our trip to Disney World. And Jon and I added an ornament to our collection as well, a ball that used to decorate my paternal grandparents' tree. Someting new and something old.
12 days of Christmas, Christmas, family, traditions Bucking tradition
I love tradition, but there are times when feeling bound to it can become cumbersome. That's why, after years and years of cutting down our own Christmas tree, we found ourselves shopping trees at a trailer alongside the highway this morning in a barely relenting fog. And in fact, it turns out that isn't such a bad way to go. The variety of trees available was mind boggling, and not only did they shake and bale the tree for us, but they also secured it to our roof rack. Plus the smell was phenomenal. Walking through a tree farm is pretty, too, but the smell amidst so many already cut trees is a powerful thing. It made Christmas come alive the way only a Yankee Candle can, even in the fifty degree drizzle.
Plus PLUS, we finally got to ask someone, strings of illuminating bulbs overhead and all, "This isn't one of those trees where all the needles falls off, is it?" and have it fit. Really, I heard my dad ask.
Of course, bucking tradition only goes so far. Even surrounded by so many choices we still came home with our beloved scotch pine. Now, after a day of countless frustrations over hundreds of little lights ("the lights, they're not twinkling"), and scratchy needles, and worn out batteries, and impatience and nagging, that little scotch pine, green and pungent through it all, stands happily lit in the corner by the fireplace. The stockings are hung, half the outside lights are up, and finally it's beginning to look like December around here.
Now the challenge remains: how to balance school with the mile-long to-do list staring me in the face and distractions up the wazoo? More on this tomorrow (if there's time, of course).
Christmas, traditions Count down to caught up...
in 5, 4, 3...
I just couldn't keep up. It must be the loss of daylight hours. Almost every day I have lots of thoughts I want to share, but by nightfall, which now is before dinner time, I'm tired and ready to curl up with a book.
November was all about baking. Lots and lots of pumpkin baking (it's Jon's favorite) and a few other things as well, like chili, and cranberry salad, and mulled cider.
November has also been about Greece. Ancient, Dark, Classical, Athenian, you name it. We started with the Minoans on Crete, moved on to the Mycenaeans on the peninsula, and from there it was a Trojan War fest, with Rosemary Sutcliff and Michael Wood. Myths and Mus and philosophers, oh my. Only this week did we make it into the Athenian Age and start looking at the great philosophers and the emergence of Greek Tragedy. We also started learning Greek. Why not? It's hard to tell who loves the topic more, and we're having a great time as usual.
The final days of football, the final days of sunny warm weather...that's November. And Thanksgiving, of course. We're sensitive to the issue of Thanksgiving in our house. I don't think there is a simple answer to the meaning of the holiday. In addition to the parade and plenty of football, this year we also watched a couple of videos from the History Channel that traced the true history of the holiday—Converted harvest festival? Commemoration of a group of uptight religious founders? Noxious remembrance of a kindness gone wrong in the end?
But the safe thing about the holiday is its connection to the harvest home celebration, the celebration of family and the warmth of good times and good food.
We headed north this year, braving traffic and some obscene weather conditions to celebrate with extended family, some of whom is relatively new to us, and regardless of football outcomes, we had a great time. And plenty—plenty—of good food. Plus we found that Black Friday shopping in a small town is actually enjoyable.
Place card crafts
Computer programming
Mourning football
Tug-of-war
Local eating
Local shopping
Local brewery
Wild weather
Beautiful snow (plus a squirrel) 
Which brings me to today, which doesn't feel like today. Not if today is after Thanksgiving, already several days into the supposed Christmas season. With Thanksgiving being early this year, and us being out of town, our usual Christmas vim and vigor has yet to arrive, so I am declaring next weekend the first weekend of Christmas in our home. In the mean time, it's back to the Greek and the Greeks, and a few other fun things on the burner.
family, holidays, traditions 
