One of my favorite parts of starting a new family with Joe is the holiday traditions we borrow from each other's families and the ones we create on our own. Here are some of our traditions:
Super Bowl- This is our big hosting event of the year. We invite all of our friends over to watch the big game and I spend the day cooking lots of yummy treats.
St. Patrick's Day- Every year I make crock pot Corned Beef and Cabbage and Irish Soda Bread. Last year we shared the meal with a couple of friends. Seeing as there is always an abundance of food, I would like to continue sharing that meal with friends or family. Also, last year all four of us learned the joy of Potato Leek soup.
Easter- In an attempt to fairly split our time between families, we have decided to spend each Easter in Wisconsin with my Mom's family. We don't always get to see everyone we want to, but we try our best.
Memorial Day- My Opa, German for Grandpa, was a World War II vet. Every year my mom, and me if I'm lucky, go to his army reunion. Every Memorial Day, we all go up to the cemetery where he is at for a beautiful service hosted by the cemetery.
Fourth of July- My brother usually hosts a BBQ on the Fourth. So we go over and hang with him and his friends.
Birthdays Day-This is a new tradition my mother and I have started this year. Seeing as all our birthdays are within four months, and we have five people, all with very unique schedules, we have decided to do one big celebration! Our first one is next Sunday.
Election Day: One thing my Dad always felt very strong about was voting. He has voted in every election since I can remember and has instilled the same passion into me. So no matter how cruddy I feel, I make it out the the polls and cast my vote every year. For the last presidential election I had a Returns Viewing Party for my fellow political buffs. I hope to do the same again next year.
Thanksgiving- This holiday we spend with Joe's side of the family. Often we meet with his mother's family and we have a nice dinner with them and then go to his Grandpa's house for desserts.
Anniversaries (yes, plural)- Our dating and wedding anniversaries are two days apart. Since there is a significant amount of time between the years (6 years!) we like to have a big celebration for both. We aren't really big on Sweetest or Valentine's Day, so we make this our big date night or weekend getaway of the year.
Sunday after Thanksgiving-This is the day I am usually able to convince Joe its time to get our Christmas tree. Since our first Christmas together we have been getting real trees...a first for me! If I ignore the needles on my floor, its definitely a tradition I love adopting! And, if I'm real lucky, I can even get Joe to bring up all the Christmas decorations from our storage unit! When we decorate we have adopted the German tradition of hiding a pickle ornament in our tree. Traditionally, when a child finds it they get a piece of candy. Since we are childless, one of us usually just hides it from the other.
St. Nicholas Day-This is a tradition we are taking from my parent's. During the night of December 5th and 6th St. Nick comes and fills our stockings. Even the kitties have one!
Baking Day- This is one of my favorite traditions! My lil sis/cousin comes over and we destroy my kitchen making baked goods for friends and family! Its an all day event with lots of delicious out comes!
Christmas Eve- Usually we both work Christmas Eve, but as I am without a job, I will have the day to get ready for our nighttime festivities. On Christmas Eve we drive up to Wisconsin and spend the night going to church with my Mom's side of the family.
Christmas Day- Christmas Day is a busy one for us. Usually in the morning/early afternoon we head out to Joe's mom's house and spend some time with his side of the family. Then in the late afternoon/evening we go to my aunt's house and celebrate with my dad's side of the family. THEN, my parents and brother come to our place for dessert and a family Christmas.
New Year's Eve- Every New Year's Eve our dear friends host a party, so we always spend the night with them, eating, playing games and welcoming the New Year.
Those are our current traditions, I am sure we will be developing more as the years go on.
Awesome holiday traditions! We do St. Nicholas Day, too! But St. Nick doesn't fill our stockings... We have to leave our boots outside of our bedroom doors and he will leave a special little gift and/or candy for us if we have been good.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I'm SO ready to put up the tree as soon as possible after Thanksgiving. I usually put up the tree the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving because I am super excited about Christmas. We have a fake tree now, but as you know, growing up we had real trees. I was thinking about getting a real tree this year, but now that we have Teddy (our dachshund pup) we may keep the artificial one for another year (we don't want him ingesting any needles).
We put the "Elf on a Shelf" (google it) on the fireplace mantle the weekend after Christmas. He watches over us and goes back to the North Pole each night to give a report on the child's behavior for that day. He always returns to a different place in the house. Katie has a blast finding the Elf's new perch every morning.
We also hide the pickle in tree and every year Katie gets frustrated and we have to play hot/cold with her so she can find it. Growing up, we never did any of these traditions, but I think it's an awesome way to get everyone in the holiday spirit.
Meg, we definitely need to create some brother-sister traditions, but the holidays are definitely jam-packed for you guys! Maybe we can start a summer BBQ/pool day tradition. What do you think?
Oh yeah, and if we're home with Katie, every New Years eve, at the strike of midnight, we have to go outside and run around the house banging pots. This is a tradition we adopted from Katie's father's side. I was always told that it was to chase the bad spirits away and welcome the good luck into the house for the new year.
ReplyDeleteI did some research and found out that it's also an old Mexican/South American tradition - back in the old days, they would go outside with empty luggage and run around the house or the block. This was to ensure that they would have the ability to travel in the new year. Since we both want to travel, maybe we both should try this for this new years?
Ooooh!!!! I need to get an Elf on a shelf!!!!
ReplyDeleteYes, we must design a sibling tradtion, that would be so much fun!