Traditions - We all have them

Most of my favorite traditions center around my family during Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Thanksgiving night us Wandell's would start our countdown to Christmas with our first Christmas movie of the season...Holiday Inn.  It is not a movie about the popular hotel chain. It's a wonderful black and white movie with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.  Most of our holiday movies include Bing Crosby.  The first time The Duke watched this movie with us, he admited to me he didn't understand why we would all laugh at spots he didn't think were funny.  He doesn't get it, and for that reason he is now excluded from our family tradition.  Just kidding.  The day after Thanksgiving we set up the Christmas tree.  Always colored lights, never white.  And always and angel on top and not a star.  Changing any of this would greatly alter the universe.  Christmas Eve up until I started my own family was always the same, we watch a Christmas movie, usually A Christmas Carol, read Luke 2: 1-15 in the Bible, the story of the birth of Jesus, then my dad reads The Night Before Christmas.  When we were little we left milk and cookies, until my dad told us that Santa really likes beer and cheese, then we started leaving that.  When my Papa Bill (my mom's dad) was still alive, he and his wife Tiny (that's what we call her) would come over Christmas morning (early, my brother and I would wake between 2 and 5am, depending on the year) and watch us open our presents and have breakfast with us.  Breakfast was and still is the same...sausage strata and monkey bread.  I am so thankful that my parents started these wonderful traditions that we still cherish to this day.

Now that I have a family of my own, it has been bittersweet to leave those traditions with my family and start new ones.  With the blending of families we now have our own way of spending the holidays.  Christmas Eve is now spent going to church with The Duke's family, opening our gifts and eating oyster stew and soup and enjoying their company.  I'm still trying to convince my wonderful Father in law to read The Night Before Christmas, he's caving in.  The Duke, Ally and I then return home, set out our milk and cookies then head to bed.  Christmas morning is spent at home opening gifts then we hustle off to spend Christmas day with my parents.  We get there in time for brunch, which is still sausage strata and monkey bread.  Sausage strata and monkey bread are so good...but for some reason we only have it one time a year.  Maybe that's what makes it so special.

One tradition I am starting with Ally this year is a fun idea I found on Pinterest.com.  Each year, starting at age 3, I will ask her the same 20 questions and see how her answers change.  Here are the results from the first session!

1. What is your favorite color? pink
2. What is your favorite toy? baby doll with the nightgown (she saw this in a catalog and won't stop talking about it)
3. What is your favorite fruit? cheese
4. What is your favorite tv show? magic school bus
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? hot dog
6. What is your favorite outfit? pink heart shirt (she was wearing it at the time)
7. What is your favorite game? animal game (no idea what this game is)
8. What is your favorite snack? hot dog and cheese curls (what she was eating for lunch)
9. What is your favorite animal? all of them (animal lover apparently)
10. What is your favorite song? Zippity Do Da
11. What is your favorite book? Cat in the Hat book from the library (my least favorite book at the moment)
12. Who is your best friend? Seth and Kara (I'm a little sad she didn't say mommy)
13. What is your favorite cereal? "I don't know mommy, I don't eat cereal" (got me there)
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? "ride my bike, swing, play"
15. What is your favorite drink? milk
16. What is your favorite holiday? "When Santa comes and brings me toys" (She must be referring to Christmas)
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? "my bedtime baby that Grandma got me" (she's never slept with it)
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? "oatmeal and sausage and eggs" 
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? "birthday cake" (duh)
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? " a snowman and a helicopter"  (I can't make this stuff up)


Oh what fun this will be!