Christmas Past (times)
What makes a tradition? When my daughter asked me that the other day, I answered that a tradition is anything that you do more than once.
One of our family's favorite traditions is stockings. We have been drawing names for several years now amongst the five of us to play "Secret Santa" . It is always interesting to see the various interpretations of what Santa would use to fill the stocking.
I use this term loosely, because stockings are too small to house the goods. Instead, we use a variety of bags, (Plastic and the more environmentally friendly cloth bags) or boxes, to hold the items.
One of our family's favorite traditions is stockings. We have been drawing names for several years now amongst the five of us to play "Secret Santa" . It is always interesting to see the various interpretations of what Santa would use to fill the stocking.
I use this term loosely, because stockings are too small to house the goods. Instead, we use a variety of bags, (Plastic and the more environmentally friendly cloth bags) or boxes, to hold the items.
[One year, my husband manufactured a stocking for my musical brother - it was a velvet note. A very large velvet note. The bottom of it where the note is round, was where he put the stocking stuffers. Try hanging that on the mantle! I don't think so! From that year on, we migrated away from using traditional stockings.]
Of course, my longest standing tradition when it comes to Christmas, is playing my little Christmas jokes. Most of them are played on my husband. Like re-gifting the home-made fudge he'd received from a Sunday School student into my friend's stocking. She had joined us for Christmas morning that year. I alerted everyone to watch his reaction when she opened it.
He didn't disappoint. His expression moved from observation, to recognition, to slight confusion. This was all done with his eyebrows. The rest of his body gave nothing away. We all burst out laughing, except for my friend and my husband.
This year, my #1 son and I found a coach's soccer award at Value Village. It said "Thanks Ray" along with the date (1986) of the championship year. We picked it up for my husband, even though his name is not Ray. We thought he might appreciate being appreciated.
My husband got my name this year, and also, just a little revenge. I opened up my stocking to find some really cool gifts. Among them was the foot cream that had fallen off my bedside table. Since it was lying around, he wrapped it up and threw it in my stocking so that I'd have lots to open. Thanks hon! It's just what I wanted.
Of course, my longest standing tradition when it comes to Christmas, is playing my little Christmas jokes. Most of them are played on my husband. Like re-gifting the home-made fudge he'd received from a Sunday School student into my friend's stocking. She had joined us for Christmas morning that year. I alerted everyone to watch his reaction when she opened it.
He didn't disappoint. His expression moved from observation, to recognition, to slight confusion. This was all done with his eyebrows. The rest of his body gave nothing away. We all burst out laughing, except for my friend and my husband.
This year, my #1 son and I found a coach's soccer award at Value Village. It said "Thanks Ray" along with the date (1986) of the championship year. We picked it up for my husband, even though his name is not Ray. We thought he might appreciate being appreciated.
My husband got my name this year, and also, just a little revenge. I opened up my stocking to find some really cool gifts. Among them was the foot cream that had fallen off my bedside table. Since it was lying around, he wrapped it up and threw it in my stocking so that I'd have lots to open. Thanks hon! It's just what I wanted.
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