TUESDAY COFFEE CHAT

 

Share your favourite holiday tradition. It can be one from your childhood, or one you started with your own family; or both!

Let me start by saying that D H and I have had 40 Christmas’s together. Over the years we have blended many traditions from both sides of our family. D H has a German background and I  am Canadian. It seems as though we changed some of the traditions over the years to fit the stages of life.

As is the German custom Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve. While my MIL was alive we always went to her house. I can remember big dinners with turkey and goose. There was always kinadle (Potato dumplings). We also had lots of German cookies and sweets.

Christmas Day was spent with my family. In the first few years it was a trip to the cottage for Christmas dinner. After the children came it was Breakfast at our house and the dinner at my parents. Once the family got so large my parents would go to Arizona for Christmas and each of us would have our own dinners.

• Of course the children grew up and I went back to work so again we tweaked Christmas. I always took a week of vacation at the beginning of December to decorate and bake. We started an Open House for friends and neighbours. Being in retail I worked right up to Christmas so Christmas dinner became a Boxing Day tradition. That tradition lasted until the year of the Xs. My oldest daughter H named it because I had invited everyone of their ex-boyfriends to dinner. I have apologized for years for this dinner. How was I to know they would break up with their significant others before Christmas. I couldn’t un-invite them.

This year we will have another family Christmas as everyone will be home for Christmas. We will enjoy Christmas Eve at our son’s house. Everyone is helping with the meal. We are looking forward to watching the children’s faces as they open their gifts.

Christmas is for children and we are big kids at heart.