What We Did This Christmas: Traditions

Brookie and I are always trying to establish family traditions of our own. Here are a few of our Christmas traditions for you to enjoy:

Bell Ringing
As with so many other things we've done recently, after we started Brookie looked at me and asked, "Why didn't we bring our camera?" It's become a bad habit of forgetting to bring along a camera to potentially fun events, and our first attempt at Bell Ringing for the Salvation Army on Wednesday night was no exception.

Brookie and I have been trying extra-hard to find opportunities to serve this season. Christmas is a time of giving, and there is no better gift than to give of yourself. We did all sorts of little things in the past month, but Wednesday night, we reported for duty at the Hy-Vee grocery store on Ward Road in Lee's Summit. We signed ourselves up for a two-hour shift of ringing bells and taking donations for the Salvation Army. We showed up, and a man handed us our red volunteer aprons and our small, white Salvation Army bells. It was really funny, because for the first few rings, we felt a little silly. Then, to overcome the monotony of ringing a bell for 120 minutes, I tried to ring to different beats. I tried a wrist ring, a behind-the-back ring, a power ring, a jingle-bells ring, a left-handed ring, and once I even rang my bell with such vigor, that my ringer fell out of my bell.

I don't think we set any records for the donations we helped to collect, but we did have a very good time. The two hours went by faster than we expected, too. Next year we'll have some experience, and I'm sure we'll find some way to kick things up a notch or two.

Christmas Goodies
It has taken a few years, but I think we have finally narrowed down our list of "must make" Christmas goodies. There's something Danish, something Portuguese, something from the Reynolds, and something from the Pyrahs. And they all start with "cuh" (the sound you make for the C in cat): Kleijners, Queijadas, Caramels, and Candy Cane Cookies. Kleijners are a traditional Danish treat and the recipe has been handed down "for generations." Queijadas are a Portuguese pastry that I fell in love with while serving my mission, and the recipe we found is pretty darn close to how I remember them. The caramels recipe is my mom's. And the Candy Cane Cookies are almond-flavored sugar cookies twisted into candy cane shapes, a recipe from Brookie's mom.

Christmas Eve Pizza
When we made out our menu for the week of Christmas we knew we would be having a nice dinner on Christmas, but wondered what we should have on Christmas Eve. Chinese sounded good, but that's what we usually have on New Year's Eve (and we really miss eating it at Nate's place). So this year we got the idea of making some pizza on Christmas Eve. Making pizza is something that the whole family can be involved in, so we see a lot of great potential in this new tradition. This year, in keeping with the generally recognized official colors of Christmas, we made a special margherita pizza with fresh basil, tomatoes, and provolone cheese. And in case the red and green wasn't enough to make it a Christmas-themed pizza, someone decided to place the toppings on the pizza in the shape of a Christmas tree.


Christmas Eve PJs
Whether we are in Utah, Indiana, or Missouri for Christmas, one long-standing family tradition is opening a new pair of pajamas from my mom on Christmas Eve. This year, there was an extra surprise pair hiding at the bottom of Brookie's package: Tiny PJs to match for our baby boy.


German Pancakes
The first time I'd ever had German Pancakes was when Brookie made them on Christmas morning for our first Christmas after we were married. Ever since, they have been my birthday and Christmas breakfast food of choice. Yum.

Christmas Day Movie
As a kid, I always wished that I could go to a friend's house on Christmas because the holiday celebration is so morning-heavy. There was never much we had planned in the afternoon and early evening. Brookie and I decided that going to see a movie is a great way to pass the time. Unfortunately, this year we didn't make it out because between the time we went to bed on Christmas Eve and the time we got up on Christmas morning, it had snowed about 6 inches. Add to that the windy conditions and there were 2-foot snow drifts preventing us from leaving our home. So, we just stayed home all day (in our new our PJs). We stumbled onto a great little Christmas movie available for instant viewing on Netflix, called Booky and the Secret Santa. Check it out sometime. Very "Hallmark-ish."

Christmas Dinner
We capped off our Christmas Day with a dinner of ham (with a special clementine-peppercorn glaze), funeral potatoes, zucchini, rolls, and homemade raspberry pie. To make this dinner even more special, in the future, we plan on getting the family dressed up in our Sunday best. This year, however, we were content to just stay in our cozy PJs and eat at our dining table.

We're Registered!
And, though not a Christmas tradition in any way, we took advantage of the weekend to finally create our own baby registries at Babies-R-Us and Target.

Go to the board!