Freaking holidays

Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?

Um

Yes, only it’s complicated…

I’m not sure why, but I’ve always had a thing for tradition. Not just mine, I love to hear about everyones! Don’t spare me the details, I want to hear about all of it! One year my high school put on the play Fiddler on the Roof. I painted sets for weeks, maybe months. That was my introduction to theater. I fell in love. With the play and with theater in general.

Little did I know then that one day I would be able to relate to the story.

When I had my first baby I got a lot of advice. A LOT. So much that it was actually uncomfortable which is why outside of this blog, I try never to give advice (unless asked specifically). And Especially not to new parents… (they have the internet, and besides, no one wants my out dated ideas)

When I was still quite young, Someone advised me to make traditions for my family, they said it would be like glue and keep teenagers close. I loved my sweet babies so much that of course I wanted THAT! Uh…good and bad news here. It worked but…

I want to say we got a little too attached to our traditions. This could be a little hilarious or it could be a bit of problem. I seriously just made them all up. Some are from my childhood and I made them fun. Some I borrowed and made our own, but mostly just conjured silliness based on things I read about…

So yes, we have traditional foods that we only make around the holiday season, specific to each holiday. We have activities, we have music, we have books and movies. We decorate. I being an artist freaking love to decorate. I stay up too late making stuff, designing around a theme, it’s kind of ridiculous, but it’s what I love. The excuse of a holiday? The carrot of keeping my people close? What in the world?!

Kids grow up, they get married, they move away, they have their own families. They have their own traditions to make. Even though everyone will probably agree that my holiday traditions are the pinochle of the best of the best, kids grow up, they get married and they do it their way. Tradition as Tevye and his wife learned, is as precarious as a fiddler on a very slanted pitched roof. Life is really all about change. Change is more where my life is at, especially now, so I’m all ears. What fun foods are you making for the holiday season?!

Mine are sitting this one out.