Jump to content

COINTEST: Traditions Cointest


Wandering Vikings

Recommended Posts

Great story, Gatoulis!

 

(actually I am using the tiny green thing that looks like grass and is growing on trees or in places with moisture)

 

I think the word you are looking for is "moss". Do you have any pictures of your manger? It sounds cool!

 

the lake has water but the waterfall and the river is not with real water but with aluminium foil! :D I still need a way or a small machine to make all these work....

 

If you Google "model train supplies", you might be able to find some cool stuff you can use. There are special resins that you can get that model water (and waterfalls) very well. There's also something called "static grass", which uses static electricity in such a way so that when you drop it, it stands up like grass. And it's probably a good way to start looking for small pumps or actuators or other machinery to add moving things to your display.

 

But I like the idea of moss! I can see how it would be hard to keep it alive. You'd have to spray it with water pretty regularly, I'd think...

 

Edited to add a small pic showing static grass:

 

tut08_plant_spacing.jpg

 

Sorry for the derail, folks -- back to your regularly-scheduled parade of traditions! : )

Edited by Jackalgirl
Link to comment

traditions... we have a family bussiness, so start of the tradition begins, with some of the grandkids working to help in the wrapping process of presents (usually i'm one of them, but this year i'm away, so my other cousisn are in charge), then on christmas night, we close the store, and everybody runs to get in my grandma's house, we alway watch #home alone" and wait for my grandfather to arrive. Once that he arrives he changes his clothes, and my grandma calls for dinner.

 

Dinner, wow, I will miss it this year. Tons of food, for everybody. we are about 20 having dinner, sometimes more, sometimes less... but that the typical amount of people in my grandma's house.

 

when dinner is ready usually we talk and try to make time until 12 to open the presents, this last years we have been doing that earlier, because now nobody waits for Santa, but when i was a kid, my uncle use to put me and my 10 cousisn in the truck and go singing x-mas songs to call santa, we will go to the beach, and sing, to the square and sing and then come back and tell our parents that we were looking for Santa, and they will tell us that he just pass over our house and left the presents.

 

a couple of times we had santa.

 

other tradition, my grandma hangs chocolate in the tree and they never make it to x-mas we always eat them before, so last year she decided to put them the last day, that was funny, because after dinner, we were all hanging from the tree trying to find all the chocolate!

 

sorry if i went long, but this year i'm really far from my family, adn also living with a jewish family, so I will really miss all my traditions... but i will learn about channukah... thanks for making this cointest and leting us share part of our life!

 

bye! and enjoy your holidays...

 

hohoho!

Link to comment

A tradition from the Italian sided of the family (my mother is Italian) is to cook up lentils & carrots as a New Year's midnight snack. They signify health & wealth (you cut the carrots cross-wise so that you've got a bunch of carrot "coins" in the mix). Cook it all up, dress it with some olive oil, salt & pepper, mmmmmmm....tasty!

 

The hard part for me is staying up long enough to eat it. I am extremely diurnal. But it's worth the effort!

Link to comment

Every year at Christmas I hear Raffi's Christmas Album up to 6 times. We have listened to this album since we were kids. We listen to it when we're putting up the tree in the middle of December. We listen to it when driving to Charlotte to visit grandparents. We listen to it on the way back. We listen to it once more on Christmas Eve before we go to bed. Of course we listen to it as we open presents on Christmas morning. We then listen to it one more time on the way to visit the rest of the family for Christmas dinner. I can sing this whole album in order any time of the year but we only listen to it those 6 times. The cd was made in 1983 well before I was born but it provides our family with it's Christmas music every year for 25 years.

 

Another thing that is really special and important to me is that even after my parents split and my dad remarried, Christmas morning is still spent with my dad, mom, sister, and me. It is truly a gift to have your parents be able to come together and be so devoted to the two things that they have both put such an investment in.

 

Happy Holidays this year!!

Link to comment

I guess all my posts are related to Christmas traditions...'tis the season I guess.

Christmas eve it is tradition in our family to dress up and make the drive to church for midnight mass. I lived on a farm growing up so our church was 45min away, more if it was snowing and it usually was. We would all pile into the car and usually mom would be 'late' and dad would go see what she was up to...so we would wait for them and then leave as a family. On the way to church dad would crank the local honky tonk station as it played non-stop carols like "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" and various Christmas Elvis. We would have mass and usually get home somewhere near 2am. A quick look under the tree showed us that Santa had been there while we were gone to church!!! We would all scatter to get out of our good clothes into Christmas pjs while mom made us a "snack". Now, any of you grow up on a farm? Our snack consisted of all sorts of veggies n' dip, chips n' salsa, shrimp rings, the Christmas candy platter, baked goods, various hors d'ouvres, and most importantly meat pies. While the hot food was being warmed, we would pile into the living room and rip open the presents for the next hour or so. Then we would eat and fall into bed.

I think this order of things was to make sure that we weren't up extremely early Christmas morning BUT when we woke in the morning...STOCKINGS!!!! And more church...

 

It took us a while to figure out why mom was always late.... :rolleyes:

Link to comment

For my son's first Christmas he was given an ornament with his name and the year engraved. The next year he got another and the next year his brother arrived so he got the baby's first christmas ornament too. After that it became a tradition that I bought a new ornament for them each year. They were the only ones allowed to put those ornaments on the tree. Initally they were just those brass ones but they have evolved over the years and now are usually pewter. They have enough ornaments to deocrate their own tree now. :rolleyes:

Link to comment

A tradition my husband and I started that has continued is when we are on vacation is to get an ornament for our tree, something that sums up the place or places that we have been to that year. My daughter loves this and every year she talks about things on the trips we have taken. Of course the ones that she didn't go to (prechildren) she just leaves for us.

 

This year I am also getting an ornament to represent geocaching. We started in Sept and are trying to reach 100 before the end of the year. Hopefully activities and weather will work out. I found a cache near us for the 100th. It is a Christmas ornament theme, to exchange. If that doesn't work out I was thinking of either a bison micro with something representative.

 

Karen

Link to comment

For my son's first Christmas he was given an ornament with his name and the year engraved. The next year he got another and the next year his brother arrived so he got the baby's first christmas ornament too. After that it became a tradition that I bought a new ornament for them each year. They were the only ones allowed to put those ornaments on the tree. Initally they were just those brass ones but they have evolved over the years and now are usually pewter. They have enough ornaments to deocrate their own tree now. :D

hey mee too,,my mom has gotten me one every year scence I was born, but the cool thing is they come from the danburry mint and are made totally from gold!!! 7a5b5300-12b6-4aba-9c25-222194dee5dd.jpg but id like to share another crazy family tradition story

Link to comment

So with such a big family on my moms side, it's really hard to keep intouch with everyone,,so everyone gets togeather for a reunion in mid July,,, well, each one is themed and each year is a different theme!! some of theese have included themes like,""rockin in the rockies" or "campers lauau",, but the one I really liked was Christmas in July!!!

 

This one was held at lake MCconaughey,in Nabraska.(this was the first year in the 90's where the water levels were super low) So low,,you could pick the fishing tackle out of the rocks that had been stuck over the years of fishing,,any how...

So we used a normal pine tree at the camp site and decorated it like a Christmas tree,everyone had santa hats,and a few of us kids were dressed as elfs ,and we had yard art all over the camp ground and all the tents and campers had lights and christmas decorations on them.., and then we went Christmas caroling from camp site to camp site,, even to those who were not part of our camp site,,, we even got the park ranger in on it!!! It was so much fun!! But looking back; Im betting the other campers were like;"" what is wrong with that family!!!"" ha ha ha ha.. so this went on for a few days!

 

On the last night we had a BIG bon-fire in the pit,, and Santa Came!!! no not with reindeer,, but with a boat,,water skiing!!!! first pass he had 2 skis,,second pass 1 ski,,,3rd pass no skis (bare foot)and he wipes out close to shore,,,boy!!! santa shure does ski well!!!!! So we got suprize gifts and sang kumbaya, with hot chalko. and the park ranger came to make sure we wernt drunk,, no one was even drinking and he joined the party for a little while and enjoyed smores with us kids.

 

The next morning ,, we awoke to a sunk boat!! it was tied to a tree on shore overnight, but had sprung a leak and the whole back half had sunk and all you could see was the front sticking out of the shallow water. Ive never tryed to load a boat off a shore to the truck myself,, but it looked hard, about 20 family members pushing a boat onto the carrier with half the truck in the water.

 

needless to say after all was said and done it think it was a great Christmas in July-- at the real Christmas everyone bought my aunt a boat patching kit,she had like 20 of um!!, she musta had a leak that year??? ha ha ha

Link to comment

School Traditions.

 

I think all family have this tradition.

 

Each school year go out and take the children to get school supply, fighting the lines, and hoards of people at walmart to get that last box of crayolas that you think you might have to stab another parent over because your child really really needs it (not to be confused with black friday). Spending tons of money on the lists provided by the school which half the stuff serves no use what so ever. New cloths, book bags, coats, paper, pencils. Free and public education here means you pay a $25 class fee, plus all the multitudes of fundraisers where the school hands your child out as a sales person, not to mention all the fees for 4h, band, camp, trips, and dozens of others. I think the school suply companys gives a kickback to the schools lol.

 

Yup this is a year long tradition that I cant wait for it to end..... especially since i had to go threw it once, now with kids a gives it to me a 2nd time LOL.

Link to comment

Another holiday tradition (brought to the family by my husband) is to watch "A Christmas Story"*. We had a VHS tape copy of it, but have recently purchased the DVD (and he's pretty excited about that). We also watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Our daughter is all of 16 months old, so we're really looking forward to developing child-centric traditions with her. : )

 

*"Randy lay like a slug. It was his only defense."**

 

"God help me! He had yellow eyes!"***

 

***I could go all day. ****

 

**** With all the dog-loving cachers around here, I'm surprised there isn't a geocacher called "BumpusHounds". Oh wait, there is!

Link to comment

Well you ask about traditions, this one started by accident:

When my Wife and I were first married we saw a movie called National Lampoon Christmas Vacation;

 

235fdf2e-f0f3-452a-9d18-e0ad4b426ab6.jpg

 

We then started watching this movie every year, and even though this was the most dysfunctional family ever we thought a few things

In the movie the following was great:

The whole family in for the holiday

The Marty Moose Mugs

The candle ornaments

MOST OF ALL THE ADVENT HOUSE

f407b9d1-b2b8-45fb-ba6a-63673888c31a.jpg

 

As our family grew, we wanted our own Advent House to share with the kids and open a window a day, just like the movie.

We searched and searched and finally found the exact house and now every year we put the house up and open a window each day.

 

And we still watch the movie every year, my Wife, Daughter, Son, In-laws, etc…. and this year we are adding a new family to our tradition.

Laughter, Family, Friends, Great Food, Good Spirits, you can’t beat it….

Link to comment

For my son's first Christmas he was given an ornament with his name and the year engraved. The next year he got another and the next year his brother arrived so he got the baby's first christmas ornament too. After that it became a tradition that I bought a new ornament for them each year. They were the only ones allowed to put those ornaments on the tree. Initally they were just those brass ones but they have evolved over the years and now are usually pewter. They have enough ornaments to deocrate their own tree now. :)

We have several sets of ornaments. The first is the White House ornaments. My aunt started buying them for us when Brian & I were engaged. We now have 16 of these ornaments on the tree (and this year's currently under it). When Brenda was a baby, my mom got her a Madame Alexander doll ornament from Hallmark...little did we know that 13 years later the series would still be going strong. The final is Heather's series...unfortunately, the year that she was born, we were not too fond of any of the new series, so we waited. Now we get her a Hallmark fairy ornament every year (we have 4 or 5 of them, I think).

Link to comment

.........Christmas in July!!!

 

This one was held at lake MCconaughey,in Nabraska.(this was the first year in the 90's where the water levels were super low) So low,,you could pick the fishing tackle out of the rocks that had been stuck over the years of fishing,,any how...

So we used a normal pine tree at the camp site and decorated it like a Christmas tree,everyone had santa hats,and a few of us kids were dressed as elfs ,and we had yard art all over the camp ground and all the tents and campers had lights and christmas decorations on them.., and then we went Christmas caroling from camp site to camp site,, even to those who were not part of our camp site,,, we even got the park ranger in on it!!! It was so much fun!! But looking back; Im betting the other campers were like;"" what is wrong with that family!!!"" ha ha ha ha.. so this went on for a few days!

 

On the last night we had a BIG bon-fire in the pit,, and Santa Came!!! no not with reindeer,, but with a boat,,water skiing!!!! first pass he had 2 skis,,second pass 1 ski,,,3rd pass no skis (bare foot)and he wipes out close to shore,,,boy!!! santa shure does ski well!!!!! So we got suprize gifts and sang kumbaya, with hot chalko. and the park ranger came to make sure we wernt drunk,, no one was even drinking and he joined the party for a little while and enjoyed smores with us kids.

........

 

 

Sounds like a kiwi (New Zealand) Christmas in December!

Link to comment

All of my posts have been about Christmas traditions so now I will post one on Easter.

At Easter our family colors eggs like normal except that the tradition in my family is to decorate the eggs with wax drawings (bunnys, chicks, crosses, baskets, etc) before you color them. We make one for every member of the family specifically with their name on it, plus extras. Most of us don't eat more than one egg but my dad has always had his own tradition making sure there are none left the next day. I swear he usually eats at least a dozen throughout the day. His cholesterol is probably through the roof on that day!

 

and yes, DJ. J.Rock that does sound like Christmas 'down unda'!!!

Link to comment

Ok here is a birthday tradition in our family and I truly swear I have NO idea where it started. When I was little at each of our birthdays one of us kids was chosen to grab the gift and hold it over the head of the recipient. As they were holding the gift they recited this verse

 

"Heavy heavy hang over the head.

What are you going to do with it?

Play with it, Eat it, Wear it, Or use it?"

 

The person had to make a guess before they could open their gift....LOL I know, pretty stupid but when I was little I thought everyone had their birthday gifts given to them this way!!

Link to comment

OK, Time for me to buckle down and type this one out, since I've been putting that off for a few days now...

 

This is a Tradition from a (past)Girlfriends Family, not my own family, but I love it and it makes the Gift opening so much more special.

 

Each Year the entire family gets together for the Christmas celebration, which can last all the way through to the next day(or beyond), and can take place in several different locations(moving the whole group from house to house). On Christmas morning, after breakfast and stockings, the entire family(and guests too) sit in a circle around the livingroom. The youngest child who can do the task is selected as Santa Claus, and delivers a Gift that is labeled for the person sitting closest to the tree. That person gets to open the gift while everyone watches, and is actually paying attention. Then they get to show off the gift, try it on or try it out, and even passing it around if it's something like that(a book or anything that each person would want to see closey). When that one is done, a gift is delivered to the next person in the circle. This goes around and around until all the gifts are delivered and opened. It can take a few hours to get through the whole pile, and it really makes Every Single gift into a special event of it's own. Even a Gag gift is a bunch of fun, since everyone will know the funny family stories behind that kind of gift. There are even some gifts without labels, so that any surprise guests would be included in the circle of gifts.

Link to comment

I guess this would be a tradition since it is something that WE have done since I can remember , just some things have changed.

 

Up until I was 9 years old, Christmas eve, We'd all pile into the vehicle to go out and look at everybody's light and yard decorations. When we got back - Santa had arrived. ( recently, I figured out that it was my Uncle Buddy and my older brother who facilitated this)

 

When I was 11, we continued that tradition but then we were back from a year in Louisiana. We were now in the same town that most of my cousins, aunts, uncles and my Grandma & Grandpa lived. Since neither of our families had money, we would all gather for pie and desert at my Uncle Bob's family house after Thanksgiving. While there, we would pull a name and that would be who we would get a Christmas gift for - you know, kids got kids and adults got adults.

 

Well, I got married and we continued the drive around Christmas time. Believe it or not, My kids still Love the tradition - we used to take my Mom, also.

Link to comment

ok ready for another,,,??

 

When I turned 18, I moved outta moms house and into my own,, as any one that has done this knows how hard those first coupple of years can be. Well that first year on my birthday and christmas my family bought me napkins,towells,ramen noodles(50 cent pack of noodles with flavor), the normal care package type thing.

 

So my cousin thought it would be funnie, to give me all this weird food- stuff you find at like big lots and the doller store type food, I mean some weird brands and types of stuff I never herd of. The whole family got a good laugh outa that.

 

Well come the next year I still had all this weird stuff I never used, so I packed it up and gave it all back as a joke,,,well he dident realize that would happen and he was repeating the same joke that year too,,and I dident know he would do that. So as were going around were opening all these cans of weird sausages,, and hes getting all his stuff back too,,each turn another one ,my turn another one,,,he's turn another,,and another,it was like war with weird food!!! Well we both held that gruge all year and the same thing happened the following year,,and the following year,and now this year will be our 7th or 8th year of this. so I would call this a tradition.

 

This year I have a plan-- Im gonna find the weirdst stuff I can find that comes in a can and buy like 20 of um, then Ill buy like 2 of something else very weird,,,then im gonna peel all the labels off and mix them up in a big box!! ha ha ha guess what you got,,cause I dont even know whats in the cans!!!!! a hahahahaa, Im giggling right now just thinking of his face when he sees 30 cans of food with no labels!!!! and when he opens one and goes" what the heck is that"!!!! awww good stuff!!!

Link to comment

Great Traditions...Its fun to see what others do.

 

This Tradition is REALLY COOL!

 

Sweetpeas family has a family recipe, that her mom has the original of from way back when her family came from Sweden(?) by ship. I had never heard of Ableskievers before, but its basically a pastry with a prune inside and its fried in a special cast iron pan (that was brought on that same ship) into little balls of yummy goodness! :) Dip em in Powder sugar for a real Fat Kid delight! :blink:

 

They only do it at Christmas, but its just really cool...The old pan, the old recipe, THE PILE OF LITTLE BALLS! Every year :) and its been that way since her mamma was a kid!

 

:) ABLESKEIVERS! :anicute:

Link to comment

Ok here is another one that I can't remember ever NOT doing. Applies to all year around.

 

When you want to give a surprise to someone you say

 

"Hold out your hands and close your eyes,

You're going to get a little (or big as the case may be) surprise!"

 

Sooo you have someone with eyes closed and hands held out and if they peek they don't get the present!! Its hard for little kids to not try to peek. LOL

Link to comment

the other tradition we ahve is to always buy a new nativity every year

Wall hangings, crib sets, batiks etc. we have been married 17 years and always display them all - we also have some gifted to us, so it is a joy to put them all out - a week before the tree and sparkly things

 

We have them from

Bolivia

USA

West Africa

Germany

Jerusalem

India

kenya

tanzania

mexico

france

as well as england

 

so anybody fancying getting rid of a set in the pass on mission..........

 

Bob

Link to comment

My family is quite large (I am one of 5 kids) & we are spread far & wide. My husband's family is much smaller, but again they do not live close, so our Christmases are significant in that there is very little tradition - each year is quite different, depending on where we are celebrating. Last year we had Christmas in Bali, Indonesia with my Mum & sister's family, so that was very different. This year we are celebrating at our home, so it is the first time in years that I have actually put up the Christmas tree!

 

The only true tradition that seems to continue on regardless is my son's Advent Calendar - it was handmade by his grandmother when he was 2yo with different cross-stitched designs for each day. There are also little cloth bags to hold goodies that he opens every day. Even though he is now 14, this is one tradition that he really enjoys from year to year, regardless of where we are celebrating. The contents of the bags have changed over the years though - he is now getting cash & candy in the bags rather than tiny little toys!

Link to comment

After Thanksgiving dinner we put up the artificial tree at the grandparents house and we are now the grandparents. As we put up the ornaments we remember where it came from and tell the newest generations all the stories. The kids make home made decorations to add to the tree or house which then becomes part of the tradition. We buy an ornament for every person that represents what they did that year that they keep so when they have their own home they will have the ornaments to share with their family.

This tradition has been passed down through four generations. One of our area high school was given a giant Santa and all the reindeer 70 plus years ago and every year they would display it on the front lawn. They would put it up after Thanksgiving and not take it down until lthe new year. So parents with small kids would stay away until Christmas Eve. Parents would take the kids to look at all the colorful lights on Christmas Eve and would stumble upon Santa and the reindeer so close to home. Then they would have to go home so the kids could go to bed so Santa would come to their house.

My parents took us, and I took my daughter every Christmas Eve, who never liked to go to bed, but she would go to bed that night. Now we all take our grandson and then come to our house where they spend the night. It is one we have all enjoyed.

The best tradition is seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child. That is the magic of Christmas.

Link to comment

Looking at the thread you are looking for traditions both Christmas and otherwise:

Well being outdoor people versus couch potato’s we enjoy camping and being outdoors as much as possible we have moved two Holidays outdoors.

We now celebrate both Easter and Thanksgiving while camping sometimes this risky as being in the Northeast the weather is a bit unpredictable during these

times of the year.

 

For Thanksgiving we have our family, In-laws, and two to three friend families joining us, it seems to be growing as this year we had four additional families.

We deep fry two Turkeys one is injected with a Cajun mixture the other a butter garlic. Three this year.

Every family makes a dish or dish or two, whatever is a tradition in their family, Yams and Marshmallows, Green Bean Casserole(YECKKKKKKK), different stuffing’s,

a few Liquor laden desserts, etc…. Sometimes this proves interesting…..

We also combine this with a warm fire, coco(for the kids), Irish Coffee(for the adults), and pie around the fire.

We also have a TV set-up to watch Football(US Football), those portable generators are a God Send.

After the game we sit around the fire until early morning just talking about what has happen this year, and what we wish for next year, this is our version of the

the Christmas/New Years letter.

 

Of course for Easter we substitute in a Ham but we still do at least one Turkey, the rest is the same.

 

The kids love it and anyone who has joined us once has always been back, and we hear:

“I heard you and ….. went camping for ….. that sounds great wish we could do that.”

I just extend an invitation to them and say we can always use one more family, feel free to join us.

 

P.S. The Eater Bunny can find the Camping Area if you leave the GPSr coordinates, he has found us many times, and has found the other children there as well just

remember to have the kids send him a letter letting him know where you will be.

Link to comment

We have a party before Christmas every year since we have been married (30 years now) sometimes it is a few days before and sometimes on Christmas eve. We play a game called "Pass the present" every one is given about ten different numbers and if there are twenty people we may have twenty two presents when your number is called you may pick a present off the table and open it up. (There are som Boobie prizes) If you don't want to open one up you can select a present that any one else has and take that instead. This game lasts about an hour and half. Everyone seems to like it even if all they ended up with is a can of spam.

Link to comment

Every year for the past few years whichever family members house that we are at for Christmas, we have been hiding presents nearby for people to find. What we do is we hand out gpsr's (between friends and family there has been enough extras around) if not enough for everyone we create teams. After that at a set time I hold up a board with many coords on it and the people input the coords of their choice (there are alot) and off they go!!!! The kids LOVE it! After everyone returns gifts can be traded but not opened untill everyone is done trading. We usually have a seperate team for the kids so the presents are age appropriate.

This game really gets people laughing and makes the family get together and talk and laugh. Also keeps people from sitting around being bored and feeling uncomfortable.

Link to comment

One more Christmas tradition. When I was first allowed to help decorate the tree at about 3 or 4 years old I I was given some plastic ornaments to hang. They were plastic icicles. I wasn't allowed a chair so I hung them within my reach. My mother laughed because they were all so low and then moved them where she wanted them. I didn't like that much. As I got older of course the height of my icicles rose as I grew. When I got married and got my own home, I was given those plastic icicles for my own tree. When my kids were born these were also the first ornaments they were allowed to hang. One day my mother came over and asked why they were all around the bottom of the tree. I told her that was where the kids hung them and I wasn't going to move them. I didn't want to follow that particular part of the tradition. She didn't say much else. Again as my kids grew the icicles came closer and closer to the top of the tree where I can't even reach. My kids are grown now and I hope one day to have grandkids to help me decorate and they will also start with the icicles.

Link to comment

Now that I have kids, traditions seem much more important.

 

Here's a few that the kids like (me too!):

 

Sleigh-ride and hot chocloate - classic! Our dog is a Husky mix (or wolf - see my profile and decide) so she used to pull the sleigh. Now she just walks along and "guards" us.

 

Last day of school movie night. We have a "hide-a-bed" and all climb in. Kids watch, eat popcorn and fall asleep. If you are newlyweds, you can have a variation on this theme and eventually may find yourselves with kids too!

 

And...here's the weird one: :blink:

 

For some reason, we have a Christmas ornament that is a pickle. You know... like a Dill Pickle. Anyhow, apparently in Germany, they would hide a pickle in the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. The person that found the pickle would get a special present. We leave it out for Santa to put in the tree and the special gift is ussually a family movie (Harry Potter, SAW 7, something like that). My family are all German and think this is insane and can't ever remember doing this, but around our house it's a tradition.

Link to comment

A New Year's tradition I actually dreaded at first but now I took over. In order to prosper in the New Year one must eat poorly on New Years Day. So every New Year we have to eat hot dogs, mashed potatoes, saurkraut (sp?). Everyone who is in town gathers for the meal. My DH who hates the kraut has 3 strings, so its kind of a joke for all of us to try to get more past him.

 

They claim this is a German tradition but I thought the German version was for pork.

 

The year my Brother In Laws family drove back home that day and skipped the meal he was laid off and it took him nine months to find a job. So now they make sure the stay for the meal or are home for them to prepare it at home.

 

My family has the tradition of Black Eyed Peas every year and mom always has to bring those over as well. So we have a strange mix of food now.

 

Karen

 

PS I like the hot dog meal better than the Black eyed peas.

Link to comment

Every year Mr BP and I go for a walk to admire all the neighbours' Christmas lights. Since we live in the country this involves walking several miles, with several long dark stretches where we can barely see the road in front of us. We take a flashlight but only turn it on when we need to warn the occasional car that we're on the road. The road is often icy, and the weather is sometimes cold or windy, but by the time we hustle our frozen butts back home for a cup of hot chocolate in front of the fireplace we're always relaxed and in a good mood.

Link to comment

Could be that it is Christmas and that is why Christmas traditions are on everyones minds so I will give one Christmas tradition and one 4th of July tradition in our family.

 

We have been married for 26 years and our oldest daughter is now 25 with a 17 year old daughter and 15 year old son to round out the family. We always do our BIG Christmas meal on Christmas Eve followed by hours of playing cards and then settle in to open gifts from one another. The kids are allowed to open the gifts they got for eachother and my husband and I are allowed to open the gifts he and I got for eachother. The kids receive one gift from us each Christmas Eve which is a warm, cozy, soft and snuggly pair of PJ's that they always wear to sleep in that night. We also get a new pair of PJ's and when we all arise on Christmas morning, pictures are always taken while all other gifts are opened and everyone is in their new PJ's. After the gifts are open, we cook a full breakfast spread and lounge around for a few hours taking in the meaning of the holiday and enjoying the new "toys" left under the tree. Midday, we head to the movies and always see a double feature before heading back home to close out the holiday playing cards until we can't stay awake.

 

4th of July carries a tradition started by my parents their very first year married - watching fireworks at a local park (we now view them across a lake) and enjoying Rootbeer Floats with Homemade Vanilla Ice cream. We pack a cooler with some dry ice and all the fixins and load up the truck with blankets and chairs and head out early evening to play catch and claim our spot so that when the fireworks start, we can enjoy our floats and the beautiful display. Afterwards we pack up the truck and head home with the kids generally worn out and all head off to sleep with sweet dreams of a great family time had.

Link to comment

Great story, Gatoulis!

 

(actually I am using the tiny green thing that looks like grass and is growing on trees or in places with moisture)

 

I think the word you are looking for is "moss". Do you have any pictures of your manger? It sounds cool!

 

the lake has water but the waterfall and the river is not with real water but with aluminium foil! ;) I still need a way or a small machine to make all these work....

 

If you Google "model train supplies", you might be able to find some cool stuff you can use. There are special resins that you can get that model water (and waterfalls) very well. There's also something called "static grass", which uses static electricity in such a way so that when you drop it, it stands up like grass. And it's probably a good way to start looking for small pumps or actuators or other machinery to add moving things to your display.

 

But I like the idea of moss! I can see how it would be hard to keep it alive. You'd have to spray it with water pretty regularly, I'd think...

 

Edited to add a small pic showing static grass:

 

tut08_plant_spacing.jpg

 

Sorry for the derail, folks -- back to your regularly-scheduled parade of traditions! : )

 

:D Hmm.. I will search for it! Thank you!!

you can see photos of my manger (unfortunatelly the moss is not in good shape because we didn't have a lot of rains, so it is not so "rich"), in the thread with the name : COINTEST: Sharing of your Christmas Spirit Cointest.

 

By that way, you can take a look of my tree and manger..... :blink:

Link to comment

My family has a tradition we follow when we're geocaching in the Japanese countryside:

 

Vending machines are all over the place here. It is not in the least uncommon to be driving literally in the middle of nowhere, along a dirt track, and find a vending machine.

 

fd8ba3e6-b811-4588-a12b-107a6383d8fb.jpg

A vending machine near a Buddhist shrine in Misawa, with geocoin

 

Note the color under the items -- those marked with red are actually dispensed hot, almost too hot to touch.

 

We have a Dodge Grand Caravan (a very large mini-van), which has just about enough space to hold the baby and the Baby Support Equipment (with maybe just a little space left over so that we can hold picnics in the back of the van if it's too cold or windy outside to picnic in the open). This is the car we use for geocaching when we go out as a family.

 

Our tradition is to find the nearest vending machine and load up on drinks -- hot coffee for my husband, and hot tea (though sometimes coffee) for me. It's actually the first stage of geocaching for us -- and the first stage of any lengthy trip we take in the car. We must find a vending machine and buy drinks, or the trip is just all wrong.

 

Fortunately, it's easy to do!

Link to comment

:blink: Hmm.. I will search for it! Thank you!!

you can see photos of my manger (unfortunatelly the moss is not in good shape because we didn't have a lot of rains, so it is not so "rich"), in the thread with the name : COINTEST: Sharing of your Christmas Spirit Cointest.

 

By that way, you can take a look of my tree and manger..... ;)

 

Wow! Really nice work, Gatoulis! (If anyone missed it, you can see Gatoulis' manger diorama in this thread. It's really awesomely detailed!)

 

I would not have the patience, especially not to do it every year as a family tradition. What a great thing to do for your family. I especially like the blue lights behind the curtains and the way you light up the diorama in the dark!

Link to comment

For my son's first Christmas he was given an ornament with his name and the year engraved. The next year he got another and the next year his brother arrived so he got the baby's first christmas ornament too. After that it became a tradition that I bought a new ornament for them each year. They were the only ones allowed to put those ornaments on the tree. Initally they were just those brass ones but they have evolved over the years and now are usually pewter. They have enough ornaments to deocrate their own tree now. ;)

 

What a great tradition; imagine their first tree when they move out (eventually they will) and take them with them.

Link to comment

Every year we make homemade microwave peanut brittle for our coworkers. Takes us a good part of the day to whip up 16 to 20 batches and it is always well received.

 

Can you share the recipe? I LOVE peanut brittle! ;)

 

Sure! I'll be making more tonight with my son for his high school band class. Looks like another 10 to 12 batches. It ought to take us about 3 hours (we have 2 sets of everything so that one set can soak the candy off while the other is used to prepare the brittle).

 

We go to our local warehouse style grocery store to buy the raw Spanish peanuts in bulk (along with a 10 lb bag of sugar and a gallon of Karo syrup).

 

Microwave Peanut Brittle

 

1½ cups raw Spanish peanuts

1 cup sugar

½ cup light corn syrup

dash salt

1 tablespoon margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

 

• Mix first 4 ingredients in a microwave safe bowl.

• Microwave on high for 5 minutes.

• Pull out, stir, microwave another 3 minutes.

• Pull out, add margarine and vanilla, stir, microwave another 2½ minutes.

• Pull out, add baking soda, quickly stir (it will foam up), and pour onto silicon mat (or well greased baking pan).

• Cool. Break into pieces.

 

Helpful accessories:

It is best to use a Pyrex-type 8 cup measuring “cup” with a handle for microwaving the ingredients. It allows you to pull the bowl from the microwave without an oven mitt.

We use Chef’n silicon coated spatulas to stir the mixture after each session and found it easily comes off the spatula (as opposed to soaking lots of forks).

If you pour the mixture onto a silicon baking mat then it will come off easily when cooled without sticking (I can't say the same about a greased cookie sheet).

 

Papa EGTH of the ELk Grove Treasure Hunters

Link to comment

:blink: Hmm.. I will search for it! Thank you!!

you can see photos of my manger (unfortunatelly the moss is not in good shape because we didn't have a lot of rains, so it is not so "rich"), in the thread with the name : COINTEST: Sharing of your Christmas Spirit Cointest.

 

By that way, you can take a look of my tree and manger..... ;)

 

Wow! Really nice work, Gatoulis! (If anyone missed it, you can see Gatoulis' manger diorama in this thread. It's really awesomely detailed!)

 

I would not have the patience, especially not to do it every year as a family tradition. What a great thing to do for your family. I especially like the blue lights behind the curtains and the way you light up the diorama in the dark!

 

What an *amazing* display! Very beautiful!

Link to comment

I am from a very big family and we would all end up at my mom and dad's for Thanksgiving and at my aunt and uncle house on Christmas. We would usually get about 50 to 60 guests. It was great because people would show up that you have not seen since last Thangsgiving or Christmas.

 

My favorite ritual involved each guest bringing a gift all wraped up to put under my aunts tree. After dinner, we would all pick a number out of a hat. After dessert, we would all gather around the tree and the person with the number "1" would pick a present and unwrap it. This would be his or her gift. The person with the number "2" would then open a present, and would have a choice of keeping his gift or trade his gift with number "1". If he wanted number "1's" gift, number "1" had to trade. Then number "3" would get a turn, and if he liked his gift, fine. If not, he could force a trade from either number "1" or number "2". This went on and on until the last person unwraped his gift. If he was number "60" for instance, he can keep his gift or trade it for any of the other of the 59 gifts in the room. At the end, we took a vote to see if number "1" was allowed to be able to force a trade since he or she was not able to trade because of having the only available gift at the time.

 

What made this so fun was because sometimes new people would show up (a cousins new girlfriend maybe, or a relatives co-worker being invited) and if their gift is not so good, would they take a really good gift from your sweet grandma or grandpa. Or who is gonna make brownie points for forcing their good gift on a favorite aunt, in exchange for her crappy gift. Also, who was bickering with someone during the year and is able to get revenge by giving "him" your epilady, or giving "her" the adjustable wrench set you just unwraped.

 

This went on for hours and we would all try to bring friends with gifts with us to add to the excitement. It got so big that we got to the point that we had to start eating Christmas dinner at 1:00 in the afternoon, so the game could end before midnight!!!

 

Matty in Brooklyn

Link to comment

Two days left...

 

With so many great entries we may have to result to a random drawing- I don't know if I can choose one as the *best*...

 

I guess we'll see how it goes between now and Saturday! Thanks again to everyone who has participated so far. ;)

THANK YOU! for a chance to win your fabulious coins, its been fun.

Link to comment

I thoroughly enjoy our family traditions: (1) My wife and I always cook for our neighbors... even the ones we rarely see. We make alot of different candies and baked goods, then make plates for each neighbor with a selection of each: cookies, cheesecake, fudge, brownies, etc. We ALWAYS make pralines, which is a Southern candy that will make your mouth so, so happy. (2) On Christmas morning, my wife and I make pancakes and an "Orange Julius" drink for our kids:

 

6 ounces frozen orange juice concentrate

1 cup milk, lowfat okay

1 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

8 ice cubes

Directions

1-Combine all ingredients, except ice cubes, in blender.

2-Blend 1-2 minutes , adding ice cubes one at a time, until smooth.

 

(3) Except for our two kids, there aren't any other kids on my side of the family. Everyone gets gifts for the kids, but we adults came up with a better idea than exchanging gifts: each adult finds some charity and donates a certain amount, then on Christmas Eve we tell one another which charity we picked and why.

 

Merry Christmas!

Edited by billhyde51
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...