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Q & A: Holidays & Traditions

Original List of questions:  Q & A Questions List

What are your favorite/least favorite holidays and traditions?

This is probably the easiest question on the list. 

My least favorite holiday, hands down, is Halloween.  Spending ridiculous amounts of money on costumes for your kids (and yourselves) just so they can scour the neighborhood for candy that will only make them act like crazy little animals.  Going to haunted houses to get the shit scared out of you or spending way too much money on crazy decorations for your own house.  Spiders and cobwebs. 

None of this sounds good to me.

I get the appeal of cute costumes, I really do.  I mean what's cuter than an itty bitty baby in his or her first elephant costume?  Nothing really.  But that's about the only thing I 'get' about this so-called holiday.

It's just not for me.

My favorite holiday......Christmas!!!  And I get how that may be a little contradictory to my Halloween rejection because we spend tons of money on useless crap for our friends and family every year and also spend tons of money on decorations and what not.

So here's my take:

I LOVE Christmas decorations.  The displays are way more beautiful than any Halloween display and don't scare the shit out of me.  You won't see Santa decorations in my house but you will see a tree, lights, snowmen, stockings, gingerbread houses and trains and all kinds of other adorable little decorations.  The tree is my favorite.  I love decorating the tree and love having presents in adorable wrapping paper under the tree.

As far as gifts go, I always try to buy meaningful and useful gifts.  I honestly only try to buy things that people really want.  Yes, I ask my family what they want.  I would prefer that they have a gift that they will actually use versus something that will sit in the box in a corner somewhere. 

I think one of the best gifts I ever gave was Bon Jovi tickets to my mom.  She loves Bon Jovi and he came to our local stadium and I got her tickets.  The look on her face when she opened the gift was completely priceless.  That's why I love giving gifts.

We abide by a 4 gift rule for the children so we don't go overboard.  Something they want, need, can wear, can read.  I also do small gifts in their stocking and one joint gift for them.  I try to enforce this with my family as well, reminding them that in order to make room for new toys, we will have to get rid of old toys that they most likely purchased.

The family gets together.  It's one of the only times through the year that the we all get together.  Christmas Eve is my mom's side of the family.  Christmas Day we spend with my parents.  The weekend after Christmas is my dad's side of the family.  I've recently started hosting some of these events and I love it!  It's the only time of year we make ham and ham is one of my favorite holiday foods.

Christmas traditions are the best.  I started a Christmas Eve box for the kids.  It includes a new set of PJs, usually matching, a new DVD with popcorn and some kind of stuffed animal.  It's great in theory but we aren't actually home on Christmas Eve to watch the movie or anything.  It's the thought that counts, right?  We also started doing gingerbread cookies last year and Ashlyn loved decorating them.  We might try a house this year but we will see.

Of course there's also the religious aspect of Christmas.  I wouldn't call myself a religious person but I do understand the importance of Christmas from the religious stand point. 

So that's it.  Maybe I'm a jerk for loving to spend the money at Christmas and not at Halloween but that's ok.  I'll take cute little angels over gross cobwebs any day.

By the way, Christmas is only 10 Fridays away!  You're welcome!


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