Phone Call Friday: Don't Miss Out!

[chefkristin]

We used to get together with all my aunts and uncles and cousins. Now that we all are married and have kids we don't spend it together all the time. It bothers me but I won't let it ruin the holiday. Christmas Eve is usually our big night! We are an Italian family so we have the stuffed calamari and lasagna, etc...
One of my favorite traditions is having fried dough for breakfast on Christmas morning. My mom puts raisins in hers and they are AWESOME!!!!

Since my sister and brother and I have kids now my parents have a pumpkin carving party. They have one of those outdoor fireplaces so we carve pumpkins and eat the roasted seeds then when it gets dark we light the fire and toast marshmallows. I really love the family that I have and wouldn't ever want anything different.

 

[jlevernier]

I just hosted my annual Pumpkin Party this afternoon for family and friends. I've been doing this about 5 or 6 years, no biggie. Two of the women said they were glad I started this tradition, their kids look forward to it every year! I didn't realize I had started a tradition! What a compliment!

--Jenny L

 

[imported_jenniferp417]

Our Thanksgiving used to be driving two hours to the "farm" - the town mom grew up in. We have a big family reunion/dinner every Thanksgiving. Since my brothers and I got married, our branch of the family has unfortunately stopped going... now it's dinner with his parents at about 1 and dinner with mine about 5 or 6 - that's a LOT of food to eat in one day, especially when the second dinner is cooked by a professional chef.Christmas Eve is always with my extended family - it's also Grandpa's birthday so we have dinner and presents. Then Christmas morning is just the three of us and then off to at least one if not both families for dinner and presents. If it's not our Christmas with my stepdaughter though - we have both dinners again later (smaller meals) so she can participate.

 

[imported_lkprescott]

We celebrate Halloween a little different than most with a sacred supper that honors our ancestors. We eat seasonal foods, talk to the kids about the way our ancestors would have viewed this time of year and prepared for the coming wintertide in order to survive. We also honor the memories of anyone we personally know who has passed on from this mortal plane. Sounds somber but it's not... just very sacred and spiritual and ultimately a celebration of life. We also take the kids out for more traditional trick or treating on a different night so they have fun dressing up and enjoying that as well.

I'm blessed to have my mom who makes a GREAT Thanksgiving dinner so we go over there every year.

We celebrate the winter holiday a little differently as well. We celebrate a secular Christmas with extended family, getting together over at my parents' house. And Santa does make a visit with gifts for the kids. Each year on Christmas Eve my mom gives each grandchild and great-grand a pair of jammies she's made... our kids know that Santa won't come unless they wear the jammies and go to sleep! LOL... also each year we give our kids an ornament, so that when they're on their own and have their first tree, they'll have their own special ornaments that hold memories and love for them to decorate with. A couple days before that though we celebrate the winter solstice with a 'lights out' dinner. Again, we discuss what this time of year would have meant to our ancestors and how important the returning sun was for their survival as well as their spirits and we tie it in to why it's still important today. We eat by candlelight and only use candles that evening... no TV, no computer. I do 'cheat' and use electric for cooking but all by candlelight. We talk about the returning sun and help the kids understand that even though the weather will get colder, the days will become longer and that this transition was an important one. We like to make the stories of the past relevant to them today so they don't forget where we [humans] have come from.. which is easy to do immersed in technology and separated from nature as we can tend to get. We also welcome in our evergreen tree as a spirit of nature and a symbol of life during a season of death (since by then all the other trees will have lost their leaves and appear to be 'dead') into our home usually a week or so before the solstice... we sing, decorate and drink eggnog. It really helps spread the fun and joy through and across several days/weeks. I always felt rushed and like "it's over already?" when I was a kid so I like it a lot this way.

 

[erinyourpclady]

I just hosted my annual Pumpkin Party this afternoon for family and friends. I've been doing this about 5 or 6 years, no biggie. Two of the women said they were glad I started this tradition, their kids look forward to it every year! I didn't realize I had started a tradition! What a compliment!

--Jenny L

I would LOVE to have an annual Pumpkin party! Unfortunately we move every few years! I do always have a cookie decorating party during Christmas though...no matter where we are!

 

[jlevernier]

I would LOVE to have an annual Pumpkin party! Unfortunately we move every few years! I do always have a cookie decorating party during Christmas though...no matter where we are!

It really is a treat. There is very little carving since some of the kiddies come unsupervised. That frees the imagination up to create. If I can figure out how to get photos off my camera and size them, I will post a few.

Erin, can you invite a few of your new neighbors/friends over every year whoever they might be? Your family will know the ropes to show everybody and you could have photos around of creations from past years. What helps mine is this one gal who shows no fear in using misc. supplies.

Hmmm, . . . we had rosemary for hair, little purfume funnels for eyes, shriveled peppers as tongues, broken strings of plastic beads for mouths, blender beaters for arms. Whatever people brought. Looks like garage sales, rummage sales and surplus stores were hit for inspiration.

--Jenny L

 

[jlevernier]

We celebrate Halloween a little different than most with a sacred supper that honors our ancestors. We eat seasonal foods, talk to the kids about the way our ancestors would have viewed this time of year and prepared for the coming wintertide in order to survive. We also honor the memories of anyone we personally know who has passed on from this mortal plane. Sounds somber but it's not... just very sacred and spiritual and ultimately a celebration of life. We also take the kids out for more traditional trick or treating on a different night so they have fun dressing up and enjoying that as well.

I'm blessed to have my mom who makes a GREAT Thanksgiving dinner so we go over there every year.

We celebrate the winter holiday a little differently as well. We celebrate a secular Christmas with extended family, getting together over at my parents' house. And Santa does make a visit with gifts for the kids. Each year on Christmas Eve my mom gives each grandchild and great-grand a pair of jammies she's made... our kids know that Santa won't come unless they wear the jammies and go to sleep! LOL... also each year we give our kids an ornament, so that when they're on their own and have their first tree, they'll have their own special ornaments that hold memories and love for them to decorate with. A couple days before that though we celebrate the winter solstice with a 'lights out' dinner. Again, we discuss what this time of year would have meant to our ancestors and how important the returning sun was for their survival as well as their spirits and we tie it in to why it's still important today. We eat by candlelight and only use candles that evening... no TV, no computer. I do 'cheat' and use electric for cooking but all by candlelight. We talk about the returning sun and help the kids understand that even though the weather will get colder, the days will become longer and that this transition was an important one. We like to make the stories of the past relevant to them today so they don't forget where we [humans] have come from.. which is easy to do immersed in technology and separated from nature as we can tend to get. We also welcome in our evergreen tree as a spirit of nature and a symbol of life during a season of death (since by then all the other trees will have lost their leaves and appear to be 'dead') into our home usually a week or so before the solstice... we sing, decorate and drink eggnog. It really helps spread the fun and joy through and across several days/weeks. I always felt rushed and like "it's over already?" when I was a kid so I like it a lot this way.

This sounds like terrific tradition to set up for your family! Something we all should be a little more aware of.

--Jenny L

 

[erinyourpclady]

It really is a treat. There is very little carving since some of the kiddies come unsupervised. That frees the imagination up to create. If I can figure out how to get photos off my camera and size them, I will post a few.

Erin, can you invite a few of your new neighbors/friends over every year whoever they might be? Your family will know the ropes to show everybody and you could have photos around of creations from past years. What helps mine is this one gal who shows no fear in using misc. supplies.

Hmmm, . . . we had rosemary for hair, little purfume funnels for eyes, shriveled peppers as tongues, broken strings of plastic beads for mouths, blender beaters for arms. Whatever people brought. Looks like garage sales, rummage sales and surplus stores were hit for inspiration.

--Jenny L

I have decided that we will have one next year and every one after!!
Even though we move a lot, we still wind up living near friends at least for a little while (there are only so many places a Marine can go after all!)

 

[michelled]

Thanksgiving for us is spend one year I cook and have my family over we will play cards or board games before and after dinner. The next year we are at my IL's it's nice but I am more relaxed at my house. My IL's house is just not that big and most of the day is spent at the table talking and not much else.

Christmas is great on Christmas Eve we got to my DH aunts house for the Italian "Feast of the Seven Fishes" it's great I love most of the dishes and we open presents with my IL's. Earlier in the day my son gets to open one present from us and one from my mom.

Christmas Day is the best, we stay home and don't get ouf of our PJ's all day. We have great appitizers and an easy dinner and spend the day with my family that come and go. We will play with my son and his toys and just be together. My dh and I take the week off of work too and just do fun things with friends and enjoy the time off together.

 

[Gina M]

Thanksgiving - is usually spent with my side of the family - and because I have kids with cat allergies (and the rest of my family has cats) - we've started doing Thanksgiving at my small home but I'm okay with that - my husband works in retail and it's his only day off until Christmas Day and it's nice to not have to leave the house.

Now Christmas is another story - my in-laws will not budge on Christmas Day altogether -doesn't matter to them that I never get to have Christmas Day with my side of the family so we've lately begun doing Christmas Eve by ourselves - the kids get to open up their new Christmas pj's - we take pictures in front of the tree and I absolutely love It's A Wonderful Life - so I try and watch that like I did when I was a kid and it was on once a year on PBS with no commercials at 10 pm! Christmas Day is a whole nother story - we've begun inviting my parents over for breakfast as my sister has no leeway with her inlaws for the day and my brother just got married this year and is finding out how the whole holiday thing goes.

Then we trek over to my inlaws house (usually my husband's sister or brother's house) and usually at least 40 minutes to an hour away. The party usually begins around 1 pm and doesn't end (I kid you not) til around 10 pm - my husband is usually so tired from having worked every day leading up to it - and of course we're wiped out as well - the kids always have fun with their cousins - there's always tons of food - we all bring 2 appetizers, 1 dessert and drinks and you leave feeling like you need a vacation! We so want to someday have one Christmas Day at home like I did growing up - I never went anywhere for the day - we ate Turkey Dinner and spent the day playing with our toys and it was fun! Oh well - I guess I can't get everything I want Once my husband retires (won't be for a while - he's only 46) - we are going to take a trip at Christmas just because he won't be in retail then!

 

[jlevernier]

bumping to bring to the front

 

[JaimeQ]

The only traditions we have going so far are at Christmas each year we get a new ornament for the tree, we have been getting them with the year on them so we know when we got them. Then there is one gift opened on Christmas eve.