I was thinking about holiday traditions as I drove into work this morning listening to Christmas music. My thoughts continued on from my holiday traditions to incorporating Ed's family traditions in our upcoming marriage. Since the engagement time is not only a time of worrying over the little details of the ceremony, we have had lots of discussions about the real issues of marriage. One of the topics being holidays. We had the opportunity to discuss family traditions, holidays and what is important to us for the celebration of them at our engagement retreat in October. If you have an opportunity to attend an Engaged Encounter weekend, go for it! You will learn so much about each other from all the discussions. You are forced to stop for a moment in your busy lives and wedding planning to talk about all types of topics that you may or may not have had a chance to discuss like finances, children, hobbies, and family traditions.
Since we are huge celebration people in my family, we have a lot of traditions.My favorites are ones that we have done for years and probably are very simplistic but mean so much to me. The top few that come to mind right around Christmas start on Christmas Eve. My family always goes out to a Christmas Eve breakfast. Being out on Christmas Eve morning is such a special time. People are excited about all the upcoming festivities but since it is still early there is a quiet hush about the morning.
After breakfast, we always finish up the cooking with a crockpot of hot apple cider simmering all day. I usually end up drinking several cups and by that evening wine somehow falls into a mug or two. However, before the wine, we head to Christmas Eve Mass. We aren't a midnight mass family. We use to be but now prefer the early evening Mass. Later that evening, I usually fall asleep to the 24 hour non-stop marathon showing of a Christmas Story.
On Christmas morning, I have to wake up at 5am! I am a little kid when it comes to Christmas but I am not getting up just to tear into presents. There is a peace about Christmas morning that only exists in those couple of hours right before the sun comes up. We make coffee and open presents to Christmas music playing softly in the background with as few lights on as possible so that the Christmas tree can cast a magical glow in the room.
After we get married, I definitely want to carry on these traditions while also incorporating new ones. One that Ed always talks about is seafood during Christmas. His family had seafood dishes a few Christmases and he loved that tradition so we will definitely have to make sure there is a seafood dish or two on the menu. We both love colored lights so our tree will be lit up brightly with multicolored lights and for as long as we can avoid it - no LED lights! They just look so different than the warm glow of the traditional ones.
While we have different ways that our family celebrates the holiday, we have the most important thing in common and that is our love for our families. I am blessed to know in years to come our traditions will revolve around family time as we blend our traditions.
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| One of my favorite traditions when I was a child in Jackson, MS. Still love to see the Cross lighting up the building! |
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