It's Basically Friday...

labro

Why are we all still here??? Obviously the week of Christmas should be a holiday in itself.

What are you doing to pass the time today?

Last night I made spiced pecans so I'll definitely be munching on those allll day long! Otherwise I have no clue what I'm going to do to distract myself. I have no errands to run, no laundry to do. Maybe I'll clean the house a bit.

What are some of your family's Christmas traditions? Is there anything you think your family does that's unique compared to typical traditions?

Did you believe in Santa? When did you stop believing?

Tell us about something holiday-related your parents still do from childhood even though you're an adult now.

Is there a Santa Paws? I swear I heard the pitter patter of little feet last year....but that could have just been a squirrel.

untouchablets

What are you doing to pass the time today?
Play with dogs!! And probably read internet articles.

What are some of your family's Christmas traditions? Is there anything you think your family does that's unique compared to typical traditions?
I don't think we have any real traditions, except opening up our Christmas pajamas on Christmas eve. Which I think is pretty typical.


Did you believe in Santa? When did you stop believing?
Yes, and I believed for WAY longer than I should have. Basically I grew up really poor but we would have these amazing Christmases every year, and I never knew how my parents got the money for the presents and hid them because our house was TINY and crowded. So it wasn't until I was about 13 when I figured it out, my parents were hiding our presents at our church and would buy them year round and really nice people were also buying them for us.

Tell us about something holiday-related your parents still do from childhood even though you're an adult now.
Ummmm I don't know. Go to the midnight Mass? I haven't done that in a million years lol.

Is there a Santa Paws? I swear I heard the pitter patter of little feet last year....but that could have just been a squirrel.
I there isn't I'll be highly disappointed!!

labro

What are some of your family's Christmas traditions? Is there anything you think your family does that's unique compared to typical traditions? We have a traditional Bavarian German dinner every night on Christmas Eve. We make schnitzel, spaetzle, serve German wine, an have some other traditional side dishes like potatoes, dill cucumber salad, stuff like that. We've spent nearly every Christmas as a family of 5. With my dad being in the Army, we rarely lived close enough to extended family to celebrate the holiday with them. On one or two occasions, my grandparents traveled to be with us, but I've never experienced the crazy run around to multiple houses on the same day or over the course of the same weekend.

Did you believe in Santa? When did you stop believing? Oh I believed pretty hard-core up until I was probably 8 and some kid at school declared Santa wasn't real, that your parents were the ones who did all the presents. I very loudly told him he was wrong and that Santa was real and I went on pretending to believe for my parents and my sisters sake and just never said anything about not believing anymore.

Tell us about something holiday-related your parents still do from childhood even though you're an adult now. We still get Santa gifts. I just love that my mom and dad do that. My mom also buys each of us one of those chocolate Advent calendars each year and I take each little chocolate out each day and savor it.

Is there a Santa Paws? I swear I heard the pitter patter of little feet last year....but that could have just been a squirrel. Cinders believes in Santa Paws. Except he needs to hurry back to his workshop for a gift for her this year because he has been slacking.

labro

@untouchablets Your post made me think of H. He grew up pretty poor too and one year remembers how his dad saved up tons and tons of scrap metal and stuff to take to the junk yard for cash so he could have a bike for Christmas that year. The bike came from Santa and I think that's when he officially stopped believing because he knew how hard his dad had worked to get him a bike.

untouchablets

@labro I still get mailed gifts from Santa lmao last year I got a box with gifts from mom, dad, and Santa it was really cute.

Edit: yeah, Christmas was always a hard time for them because they couldn't always get us what we wanted but we always loved it anyway. Just looking at the piles of presents for all seven kids was like a scene from a movie.

[Deleted User]

What are you doing to pass the time today?
I'm at work until 3:30, then I plan to snack, nap, eat dinner, and go to a TSO concert with H!

What are some of your family's Christmas traditions? Is there anything you think your family does that's unique compared to typical traditions?
We always go over to my grandma's house for Christmas Eve.  H joins us now.  We used to grab pizza or Sonic to eat, but now we pick up Italian food to go and eat it at my grandma's before doing presents with her.
Since H and I got married, after we go over to my grandma's we drive through the nicest part of town to look at the lights, and then watch It's a Wonderful Life.
On Christmas Day, H and I do presents and then go over to my parents' to do presents with them and my brother.  We all have a big meal.  
Either Christmas Eve or Christmas this year we're going over to H's aunt's house to celebrate with them, too.
My parents' mantle is full of stockings... they have 4 dogs, plus our 2 dogs, plus my parents' old stockings, my brother's and mine, and one for H.  Next year we'll have to squeeze one more up there!!

Did you believe in Santa? When did you stop believing?
I still believe!    Santa still brings gifts to my parents' house.  I guess he doesn't know I've moved out and got married.  I don't want to tell him because I like getting presents.  Ha!  Somehow, he knows that H exists... because he ends up with presents, too.  Hmmm....

Tell us about something holiday-related your parents still do from childhood even though you're an adult now.
Santa presents.  It's so much fun!

Is there a Santa Paws? I swear I heard the pitter patter of little feet last year....but that could have just been a squirrel.
There is DEFINITELY a Santa Paws.  Baxter and Bella are hard-core believers.

labro

@CocoBellaF I forgot to add that we go out to look at the lights too!! This year was funny. My mom has always had stockings for H and BIL but they were just generic stockings (compared to our family's personalized stockings). This year everyone got a stocking with their name on it because of Callie's arrival.

minskat30

Morning!  I've got my coffee, my eggs and potatoes with pico de gallo and only one more day at work this week...I'm a happy camper this morning.  

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@labro - Mmmm spiced pecans.  That sounds delicious.  

@untouchablets - I'm glad there were no issues with the IUD insertion.  

@cocobellaf - Yeah for one more stocking on the mantle next year.  

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What are you doing to pass the time today?
-Work, work and more work.  

What are some of your family's Christmas traditions? Is there anything you think your family does that's unique compared to typical traditions?
-We usually make our Danish Christmas soup (it is an ox-tail broth soup...ox-tail used to be nearly free from the butcher but now its "trendy" and ridiculously expensive).  I can't eat it because of the bread balls and meat balls...its really the only thing I miss being Celiac but alas.  I make up for it by eating an extra portion of Risalamande (a Danish pudding desert with hot strawberries on top). This isn't our recipe but it gives you an idea HERE 

Did you believe in Santa? When did you stop believing?
-No, I think my sister and I were pretty young when we stopped believing but my family didn't really pretend in the first place.

Tell us about something holiday-related your parents still do from childhood even though you're an adult now.
-My mom still gives us gifts even though we are adults.  This year H and I got a joint gift of house cleaning once a month.  That was an awesome gift and really expensive I'm sure so I wasn't expecting that AT ALL.  My Mom really surprises me sometimes with gifts like that.  I'm looking forward to NOT having to deep-clean the house while hugely pregnant.

Is there a Santa Paws? 
-Duh....

500days

@labro My MIL buys us advent calendars...but we eat both of them in like a week. We can't help ourselves 

What are you doing to pass the time today?
Today is my first day of vacation until I go back on the 4th! I plan on doing absolutely nothing because there's traffic everywhere. So, internet and TV all day!

What are some of your family's Christmas traditions? Is there anything you think your family does that's unique compared to typical traditions?
I feel like we are still ironing out Christmas traditions. The only one we do every year is eat Chinese food on Christmas eve. This year my dad and my brothers are coming with us; which is awesome because I never get to see them on Christmas day.


Did you believe in Santa? When did you stop believing?
I believed in Santa until my mom and dad got sick of keeping it a secret. When I was in 4th grade, my dad took me for a drive on Christmas eve to my aunt's house. When we got there my aunt was so shocked to see me with him. My dad told her that he wanted me to help get the santa gifts from her closet. All I remember is her yelling "BOBBY!!!" (my dad's name)- she obviously thought he was crazy. My dad opened one of her hallway closet and all of our gifts were in there. I took a small trash bag full and my dad took 2 giant trash bags full to our car. 

When we got home I saw that they weren't wrapped. My mom and dad stayed up with me and we wrapped them together. I know it sounds weird but I wasn't upset or anything about Santa not being real at that point. I was just really happy that my parents loved us enough to spoil us with so many gifts. It did suck the next morning when I had to fake surprise when I unwrapped my gifts. I got to know the truth, but my brothers (who were in kindergarten at the time!) still believed for years.

Tell us about something holiday-related your parents still do from childhood even though you're an adult now.
My parents have changed it up so many times that there is really nothing that I can think of right now.

Is there a Santa Paws? I swear I heard the pitter patter of little feet last year....but that could have just been a squirrel.
I believe in Santa Paws!

speakeasy14

Why are we all still here??? Obviously the week of Christmas should be a holiday in itself.



What are you doing to pass the time today?
I'll be on here, there really isn't much to do in the office today, and there's like 10 people here.  If anyone is really bored, I was looking through wedding 911 last night, holy entertainment


What are some of your family's Christmas traditions? Is there anything you think your family does that's unique compared to typical traditions? 
My mom still hides the pickle in the tree and makes us search for it.  For those who have never had to find the pickle... it's a pickle ornament that is hidden somewhere in the tree.  Whoever finds it is the first to open their presents. 

Our Christmas meal is very beige.  My mom and I have a tradition of bringing something with color to every meal. I don't think we do anything really different than others.


Did you believe in Santa? When did you stop believing? The weekend after Christmas when I was 8 or 9.  I was sitting at the kitchen table with my parents, and my mom was flipping through all the store catalogs.  She pointed out that the baby doll I had gotten from Santa and said to my dad "look the baby doll is way cheaper now than what we spent on it."  I looked up and said "Mom, you didn't buy my doll, Santa gave it to me."  She said sometimes parents give Santa money to get children the gifts they really want.  I called her a liar and ran into my room.  She won me over by telling me that I had to keep it a secret for my sisters and brother and would get to stay up late and eat all the cookies.

Tell us about something holiday-related your parents still do from childhood even though you're an adult now. My mom hides the pickle and has the winner open gifts first.  She also still makes us open gifts one at a time. 

Is there a Santa Paws? I swear I heard the pitter patter of little feet last year....but that could have just been a squirrel. That's the reindeer silly!

Peaseblossom55

I am so so tired today.  Not even sure why.  I went to bed pretty early.  I can play today I am the only person in my department today and it will be so slow.  I seriously wonder why I am here.  I finished most of my wrapping last night and only have 1 or 2 more gifts left to wrap. 

Why are we all still here???  No clue

What are you doing to pass the time today? Here. I made chocolate meringues for  co workers yesterday and I still have some, and no on here to share them with.

What are some of your family's Christmas traditions? Is there anything you think your family does that's unique compared to typical traditions? Not really, as far as I know anyway.

Did you believe in Santa? When did you stop believing? I did, and I stopped when I was 7, when I was 6 some girl in dance class told me he wasn't real.  I wasn't sure if that was true and I was too nervous to say something, but by 7 it kind of made sense there wasn't one.

Tell us about something holiday-related your parents still do from childhood even though you're an adult now. They still wrap and give us gifts

Is there a Santa Paws? I don't know.

@minksat30 Risalamand sounds so yummy

minskat30

@speakeasy14 - Ha!  I had never heard of hide the pickle... well, except in a WHOLE different context altogether.  Now I'm envisioning this...

MissKittyDanger

Fun fact, when you put mini reese cups into cookies, the cookies need to cook 10min longer *sigh* My plan was to go to bed early, but I pretty much went to bed half hour later.

I get my hair cut tonight. Major chop! Currently it's just to my shoulders, but I'm getting a pixie

Today is probably last day until next Tuesday I'll be on, so I'll AW my hair next week!!  


What are some of your family's Christmas traditions?
Well there's not much now but when my grampa was around it was like this:
Dad worked half day, come home and we'd make sure place was clean. Grampa would pick up mum at work and they'd come home. We'd have KFC for dinner and then watch tv shows or movies. Xmas morning I could only open my stocking until everyone was up.
Matt and I plan to somewhat continue that idea when we have a house of having my mum come over xmas eve and stay.

Is there anything you think your family does that's unique compared to typical traditions?
I don't think so.

Did you believe in Santa? I did
When did you stop believing?  Probably around middle school? I know by 13 I didn't believe.

Tell us about something holiday-related your parents still do from childhood even though you're an adult now.
Yes! My mum gets Matt and I an advent calendar {chocolate calendar} and Matt's mum still gets him Crayola ornament

Is there a Santa Paws?
Yup. I got to play elf to my mum's cat {aka my sis-fur} this year. I got her a giant stocking of 21 kitty toys, all her faves and in pink because this cat is a princess lol

minskat30

@Peaseblossom55 - Yeah for being able to play today!    I wish Risalamande shipped well...if it did I would send you some.  It is heaven.  I have a feeling the heavy cream has something to do with that though.

labro

@minskat30 Yummmm that recipe sounds delicious! I basically love everything with strawberries but the pudding itself sounds amazing! Also what an amazing gift from your mom!!! That is seriously perfect!

@500days I seriously can't believe you had such a calm reaction to the whole Santa thing.

@speakeasy14 That gif is everything.

jenna8984

What are you doing to pass the time today? Ugh working til about 3. Maybe I'll pinterest some recipes to pass time or something. Excited to have no plans tomorrow and spend the whole day on the couch with Christmas movies.

What are some of your family's Christmas traditions? I guess we don't have any. Christmas was pretty basic growing up and then when I was like 17 my parents decided they were done with Christmas and they started going away on trips each year without us. (I have warned you that they fucking suck). That first year they left, I spent it at my (ex) BFF's and her parents got me gifts.

My H is an only child and they would do his presents all on Christmas Eve before bed. So when we met, he had never in his life woken up and opened presents on Christmas day. I just think that's absolutely BSC and will NOT be doing that with my kid.

Did you believe in Santa? When did you stop believing? I think I was about 8 when my brother and I hid under the end table to catch Santa. It was in the corner of the room with a sectional on each side so my parents couldn't see that we were under there and when they came out with all the gifts, we were like WTF is happening?!

Tell us about something holiday-related your parents still do from childhood even though you're an adult now. see above...nothing. lol

Is there a Santa Paws?  I have never heard of this?

MissKittyDanger

@speakeasy14  funny story about "hide the pickle" One of my friends had a nickname "squishy pickle" {don't ask, same year I got the "Danger" part of my name} So for her bday we got her a pickle ornament, it had the story of 'hide the pickle' in it!

Peaseblossom55

@minksat30 I'll have to look and see if I find a recipe for it :-) Is it easy to make?

@500days I'm sorry you found out that way. 

@speakeasy14 I never heard of hide the pickle until today. 

jenna8984

@speakeasy14 omg the pickle cracks me up

@misskittydanger hope you like your haircut tonight!

@500days that is hilarious that he was like just nope, done, here's your presents kid. hahah

labro

@jenna8984 Santa Paws brings all the GOOD puppies and kitties gifts for Christmas. He rides alongside Santa in his sleigh. DUH! But only GOOD puppies and kitties....not murderous puppies who killed five innocent baby rabbits and two innocent birds this year.

Also, your parents fucking suck. The end. I hope you're able to start some wonderful traditions with your new LO. Opening all the gifts on Christmas Eve is 100% BSC. @southernpeach89's ILs do this with their son and I just do not get it.

@minskat30 @speakeasy14 You mean you don't hide the pickle in a box?


My day just improved immensely! I'm going over to @southernpeach89 's house to help her with Callie and Maddux while she gets dinner and the house ready for her ILs tonight. Then IL set #2 is coming over tomorrow night! Poor thing! Who does that to the mom of a 3 month old? I feel for her...she has to be hostess 2 nights in a row.

MissKittyDanger

@jenna8984  my friend - aka only one I trust with my hair - knows I've been wanting this since after the wedding and I'm super picky. So I basically saved a bunch of pinterest photos and she'll go from there  I'm excited lol

MissKittyDanger

@labro  I laughed wayyyyyy to hard at the dick in the box XD

minskat30

@Peaseblossom55 - The trick is not overboiling the milk mostly.  I don't have my recipe on me but there is one from the internet in English that is pretty damn close (we use hot strawberries not cherries but both are great).  LINK

@labro - Yup, your mind went where mine did with the hide the pickle thing.  Dirty girl.  

jenjen047

@misskittydanger - AW hair pics please!

What are you doing to pass the time today? Like @speakeasy14 probably reading fun threads on TK or Wedding Bee (if I get really desperate). I have a sneaky feeling we will let go early today, which would be awesome.

What are some of your family's Christmas traditions? Is there anything you think your family does that's unique compared to typical traditions? Christmas Eve is church and then Chinese food and heavy drinking with my family and my best friend's family. We go to the same place every year and they know us well enough now to put us in a secluded back corner because we inevitably get loud and inappropriate. Christmas day we do presents at my parents house and then my best friend's family and 1-2 other families come over for dinner. More heavy drinking ensues. I've been blackout on more than 1 occasion. Not sure if any of this is unique.

Did you believe in Santa? When did you stop believing? I did and I want to say I was about 8 when I stopped. I think someone told me at school, or maybe my mom sat me down to tell me. I love the stories about kids who believed for a long time and insisted to their friends that he was real.

Tell us about something holiday-related your parents still do from childhood even though you're an adult now. We still do Santa gifts. The gifts in our stockings are always the Santa gifts and we open those first, then have breakfast, and then open the tree gifts.

Is there a Santa Paws? Of COURSE! Here is my little elf waiting patiently...

jenjen047

Also @cocobellaf - Enjoy TSO!!!

[Deleted User]

H has told me it's tradition in his family (and I think in a lot of Hispanic families) to open gifts at midnight on Christmas Eve.  Santa wasn't a thing at all.  Christmas morning, everyone would sleep in after being up celebrating all night and then eat leftover tamales and hang out.  Opening presents on Christmas and going to bed on Christmas Eve is actually weird to them!  We haven't decided what traditions we'll keep and what new traditions we'll start with our kids.  Seems kind of silly to me to start planning out every tradition for my kids when they aren't even here yet.  I know we'll want to incorporate some of his culture and some of my family's traditions, so it'll be a fun mix!

ETA:  Oh God.  I just realized there is going to be menudo at H's aunt's Christmas celebration this year.  I'm going to barf at the smell.

My mom also has the pickle ornament... she actually has TWO of them.  No clue why!  It was always fun to hide it in the tree, but no one really searched for it very hard.  Boring!

500days

@labro Yeah, when I think back on it I was kind of bratty at that age. I didn't cry because I didn't care if Santa was real or not- I just wanted ALL THE GIFTS. It sounds horrible, I know. But, I feel like it's the truth.

@jenna8984 hahaha I love the story now but I feel like my parents realized that they did it "wrong" with me...so when my brothers found out it went down in a very typical way with a sit down talk. They don't have a weird story to tell lol

[Deleted User]

@labro - @southernpeach89 has to host TWICE?  With a new behbeh???  Poor thing!!!  Glad you can go over there and help out a little bit.  Best sister ever.

speakeasy14

@labro your Christmas dinner sounds amazing! I think I'm going to start a tradition with my bf of having our own German inspired meal.  He is also from a mostly Polish family and pierogies, halupki, and fish are no where near as appealing haha

@labro & @untouchablets we still get presents from Santa too! I love my mom's thought process with Santa. She never wraps the gift from Santa, but just hides it in a corner.  Once my brother stopped believing the gift from Santa became a board game for the whole family.  

@MissKittyDanger haha my mom put a baby gate at the top of the stairs so we couldn't open up presents till she woke up and she also would have us watch movies so she and my dad could sleep to a normal time. I wasn't allowed a TV in my room as a kid except on Christmas Eve.  We each had a stocking hung from our bedroom door and when we'd wake up it would have a movie and snacks in it.  My sisters and brother would bring their movies into my room and we'd watch all of movies together.  After the 4th movie was over then we'd wake up my parents to open our presents. 

labro

@jenjen047 OMG his little sweater!!!!!

@500days Nah, I think you're fine. I just think I would've been so shocked...but I still would've been happy to get all the presents. I think the thing I always loved about Santa presents was they were usually a surprise. The stuff we got from my mom and dad we had normally asked for directly, but the Santa gift would be something we had never expected to get and that made them awesome!

@CocoBellaF Well obviously you must have tamales involved for your Christmas traditions.

minskat30

@jenna8984 and @labro - We open present Christmas Eve but Christmas is usually celebrated on Christmas Eve in Denmark not Christmas Day.  I love opening the presents at night by the fire (usually with a glass of wine).  It is perfect because my sister's husband's family celebrate on Christmas Day so we get to celebrate twice.  Once with Danish traditions and food and the next day with tamales, which I think I've mentioned are the most awesome creation ever.

@MissKittyDanger - Can't wait to see the hair!

@jenjen047 - I love your little elf.