One of the traditions I have already mentioned Here is making gingerbread houses. Another is from my other grandmother she use to take coffee cans then clean them out and add small bite size candies that she made at home starting in November. She added fudge, turtles, rice crispy treats, nuts, caramel, brownies, tootsie rolls, divinity, and a cutie. She would wrap everything up in small bits of foil and it was like opening up a new present with every piece you took out and a surprise because you never knew what was inside. On the outside of the can was a snow scene decorated with sequin and felt. I have done this tradition myself with my own children and they loved it too. I am now thinking about doing this tradition with my niece and nephews.
But I think the best family tradition that our family has is our Christmas morning breakfasts.
This started out of pure selfishness on our side. I come from a large family and we spent Christmas and Christmas eve with different family members traveling around from house to house. Well one year we ended up moving out of the state and spent the next two Christmases alone and sad. I remember sitting and thinking that we had to do something other than sitting on Christmas morning being sad so....... we started Christmas breakfast. We knew that people would not come to our house on Christmas for dinner because they would be with their own families but we thought that on their way from their houses they could stop by our house and eat with us and then go on their way to see their families. We also had a smaller tree and supplied Christmas ornaments for people to sign and hang on the tree from year to year. It is so fun each year they come back to see if they can find the past ornaments they signed. We call that our Christmas tree of memories so that is how it all started. Our first year we had only three families but we had a really super day and that was the whole idea behind it. But each year after that became standing room only and revolving doors we now had the joy of Christmas because it was outside or ourselves. We had over sixty seven people one year. We told people that we were serving breakfast from 8am til noon when at that time we cleaned up and went to the movies and had a great time watching the newest movie on the screen. So for over ten years my husband would start prepping the night before and then get up at o'darkthirty and start to cook. The kids would get up and open their presents and then play. As Mandy got older she started to help her father and it then became their tradition with each other. Each Christmas morning she would get up with her father and they would go into the kitchen and start cooking. I could often hear giggles and laughter coming from the kitchen while they were cooking. We stopped this tradition when Mandy became sick so that she was not exposed to foreign germs and get sick from them. It has now been three Christmases that we have not done breakfast and that is because it is too hard for our family but especially hard for my sweet husband. He cannot stand in the kitchen and make Christmas breakfast without reliving all the years he and our baby girl had their special time together. My husband loves to cook and I think that the joy has gone out of it since then and it breaks my heart for him. Loosing our baby girl has crippled this family in many ways but we try to live as she would have wanted us to but I tell you! It is the hardest thing we have ever done.
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