Holiday Traditions

I decided to work for a school district instead of somewhere else because of the idea that I could have not one, but TWO, weeks off every winter.   Two whole weeks of no work!  No waking up at an ungodly hour!  No obnoxious phone calls!  And most importantly, no long and boring meetings! 

When I was single, I spent most of this time sleeping in and being incredibly unproductive.  Now that I am married and a parent, I don't sleep as much, but our inviolate rule of what has come to be called Winter Break(as opposed to the former "guaranteed to start a big, useless, argument" Christmas Vacation) is that we do what we feel like doing, as much as possible.  If this means hanging out in our jammies and playing video games all day long, eating junk food and ignoring our vegetables, so be it.

Oh, we don't ignore the important things, like attending services on Christmas Eve, or spending time with our families.  Although my family is not what you call "touchy-feely", we do try to spend time together.  We usually exchange gifts with my parents, my mother-in-law and my brother's family on Christmas Eve, right after church.  We also gather together at some point on Christmas day, to feast and laugh and watch some form of sports.

The three of us, however, have created our own traditions.  Kids make it impossible not to have traditions, since they demand that everything be done just like it was last year, and the year before that, and the year before that.  We want to avoid the meltdowns, so Larry and I tend to give in to our little one at this time of the year, in the name of tradition.  Besides, we like them as well.

One of our traditions over the holiday break is to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy each year.  The extended cuts, not the silly ones that were shown in the theater are viewed, because we are hardcore about our movie watching.  This year we also included The Hobbit movies, and we wandered down to our local theater to see the last installment.  Our movie viewing is immediately followed by the "Obscure questions about Tolkien's works that only my husband can answer" portion of the evening.  My son peppers his father with questions about the characters, and my husband loves it.  I pepper Larry with questions regarding Tolkien's issues with women, and my husband doesn't love it as much, but he is at least patient. 

Another tradition?  After my son has gone to bed on Christmas Eve, Larry and I watch Die Hard together while we finish setting things up for the morning.  We share some wine as John McClane smacks some terrorists around and trades one liners with Hans Gruber.  It is a defense mechanism; by the time Christmas Eve rolls around, we are extremely tired of the whole commercialized aspect of Christmas.  We need a break, and Die Hard provides such, with explosions and bullets and bad guys getting their comeuppance. 

A third tradition is breakfast on Christmas morning.   The heavenly scent of cinnamon rolls wafts through the house at the crack of dawn, soon after we wake up.  The frenzy of opening gifts builds up an appetite, but we certainly do not want to ruin Christmas dinner by filling our bellies too early.  Cinnamon rolls seem to fit the bill, and I usually make plenty, so that there's a couple of rolls left over for snacking in between breakfast and lunch. 

What sort of holiday traditions do you and your family have?  And while I'm at it, I would like to wish you and your families a wonderful holiday filled with love and laughter and lots of goodness, whatever your traditions may be. 

Pre-Christmas Random

The family went to see The Hobbit last Saturday.  We went to the first showing at 10am, and were blessed with a less than packed theater, and we got to sit in the most fortuitous spot for movie viewing.  Where is that?  That is the spot where you can get up and leave the theater without disturbing other patrons.  For us, these are seats where one of us is on the aisle.  Since Larry is the one who has been impatiently waiting for this movie since the Return of the King was finished, I was the one who took Zane to the bathroom four or five times, got more popcorn, got more drinks, etc. So I missed a little of the movie.  Normally this would bother me, but I am sure that I will be seeing the 3D version of the movie as well as the 48-frames-per-second version that people either love or hate.  If any theater in San Antonio has that particular version; we seem to be looked upon as a less than educated movie going audience, and they might not think anyone would be interested in something new.  

Christopher Lee is in The Hobbit, revising his role as Saruman the White Wizard.  Christopher Lee actually met Tolkien, and that already makes him cooler than most people.  What is also cool is that Christopher Lee has been in more movies than anybody. Think about how many movies he's starred in, or had a cameo, etc.  That's a very long and distinguished career for an actor.  I don't think that I want to be a school psychologist for that long; there's only so many IQ tests one can give before it all runs together. 

Speaking of movies, I really would like to see the new Tom Cruise movie, which is based on a character from a Lee Child novel.  I'm a bit leery, however.  The character, Jack Reacher, is described as 6'5", and 250 lbs.  Tom Cruise is what--5'7"?   Also, Jack Reacher is described as not all that great looking.  Which is going to make this movie a bit awkward, but I'm willing to give Cruise the benefit of the doubt.  He has shown before that he can actually act, so if anyone can pull it off, he can.

There's quite a few movies coming out over the next year that I'm eager to see, including the new Superman movie and the new Star Trek movie.  There's also another Iron Man movie and another Thor movie!  Have you noticed a theme to the movies I want to see?  If a film is 'romantic',  'arty', or 'drama", I would rather wait and see the movie at home.  That way, if I cry and get all puffy, nobody sees that.  I go to the movies to escape, so I want lots of action, stuff blowing up, people getting smacked around without suffering any significant damage, etc.  Those sorts of movies lend themselves to the big screen, I think. 

I am halfway finished with my Christmas shopping, thanks to Amazon.  I don't particularly enjoy big crowds anymore, so I am happy to do my shopping online.  I hope to sneak out during my lunch hour to grab a couple of gifts, but I may just have to get up early on Saturday.  Zane has asked for a Nintendo DS, and I think that we are also getting him a new bike.  He may be ready for us to take off the training wheels this year, which will be both good and bad.  Bad, just because he will be riding way faster than I can run, even on a good day.   Between Zane on his bike and walking Maisy, I may even lose some weight!

Zane wanted to give presents to all of his teachers, so I let him rummage through all the stretchy bracelets I've made over the past year. He and I put them together; I hold the stretchy part, and Zane  puts the beads on.  I figured that doing that activity would be good for his fine motor skills, but we won't see the benefits from that until he starts actual writing.  Right now he's just copying letters.

I will be going to my son's "Christmas Sing-a-long" this week. I'm skipping work for a couple of hours, but it will be worth it.  I will have to bring the camera, and the Flip camera.  Zane has been singing Christmas carols nonstop for the last month, and we've been amazed at what he is remembering.  I'm so eager to see my little boy up there, but I hope that I don't embarrass him with my cheering.

I think that's about all the random I have for today.  Please go and visit Stacy over at Stacy Uncorked, because she is awesome.   Also, hug your child today, and tell them that you love them.  Tell all of your loved ones that you love them, as a matter of fact.