Sunday, November 27, 2011

A Traditional Girl

And so the season of traditions begin! From the Macy's Day Parade to my raging hangover on January 1, the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day is full of little traditions that make me really enjoy this holiday.

The dumb part is that there are a bunch of traditions I love that I can't do this year. Primarily, I like putting out some Christmas decorations. I don't have a ton of them, because I'm not a huge "seasonal decorator" (and never understood the point of fake snow when there's loads of the real stuff ruining my drive every day), but I have a few of them that I love. Unfortunately, my box of decorations is packed up in storage with all my other "non-essential" boxes that I had to store after my last move. And then there's the whole Christmas tree thing. Geo and I would go and pick one out, and I'd decorate it while he put the Christmas lights up. We'd listen to Christmas carols and I'd drink too much pumpkin ale and start over-tinselling the tree. How joyous!

But this year, I guess I need to focus on the traditions I CAN keep.

Tradition One is to get out to Target and buy myself a pair of children's holiday socks in the dollar aisle (yay for freaky-small feet!) On Friday, after my insane mom and sisters and sister-in-law got back from a seventeen hour shopping marathon (THEIR very insane tradition) I decided to join them on their final leg when they went to Target. I had to get my socks. I was not disappointed and came out of there with a spankin' new pair of sparkle polka-dot holiday socks.

I've also started my very strict traditional diet of pumpkin pie, potatoes of all kinds, and gravy that is legitimately 1/2 FAT. Seriously. I saw it being made, and the recipe called for FAT. Stupid, tasty fat. This obvs leads to my most loathed tradition of gaining 140 pounds. I can't help it, you guys. It's important to honor traditions. And pie is soooooo good!

Other traditions that I've already completed include digging out my one Christmas scented candle, changing my phone ringtone to "All I Want for Christmas (Is You)" by the illustrious Mariah Carey, getting a Fa La Latte at Caribou Coffee (Squeeeee! There's a Caribou in my building at work!) and incorporating more browns into my wardrobe. I have no idea when this started, but for some reason wearing browns instead of my go-to black make me feel like a reindeer or holiday spice or something.

I also got my first roll of Christmas wrapping paper. I am obsessed with wrapping presents, and Christmas presents are the most festive to wrap, and I lurve it.

But my favorite tradition is shopping. I have a ginormous family, so there's ALWAYS a reason to get out and head to the mall and come back with bags and bags of stuff (which I also get to wrap). And my roommates can't call me a Shop-a-holic for one blissful month. This year will be tougher, though, as I have NO ideas for anyone yet. Typically, I have at least one totally bomb idea that gets my motor running. So far this year? I've got squat. Ideas, anyone??

What about you guys? What are your favorite holiday traditions? Weirdest one wins!

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