The grass does not grow on the places where we stop and stand

Today is Christmas Eve which means I'll be traveling somewhere. This year is a bit different, as it is my first year not celebrating with my parents. Usually we're spending the night at their place, then waking up early, and opening presents in our pj's, just like every other family out there.
My mom always gets tons of store-bought cinnamon roles, donuts and breakfast pastries for breakfast. My mom and food - you'll never starve with her around. Gotta love her. There is usually tons of bowls of candy, a pot of coffee always ready, a ham ready to go in the fridge with the bread and mayonnaise right next to it for the perfect Christmas Day lunch.
Growing up, we did develop a few weird traditions. Or, anti-traditions as sometimes the case was. We were never allowed to watch It’s a Wonderful Life because my mom hated how bad things got in the movie, and how completely sappy it is at the end. I did manage to still watch it just about every year, but never when she was around. I’ll never forget Christmas Day 3 years ago when we (my sister and I) persuaded it to be played in the house while my mom was home. My sister-in-law had never seen it (we’ll forgive her – she’s Australian) and in our effort to continue to force our American customs on her, we sat her down and put it in. At first, my mom was putzing around the kitchen, doing whatever she could to avoid watching it. But her wanting to spend time with the family forced her to sit down eventually. Heck, even my dad, Mr. Un-sappy himself was watching it and enjoying it.
Well, you know how this story turns out: EVERYONE cried at the end and my mom had a new appreciation for the movie, declaring that we would have to watch it every year from now on.
Feeling like we still needed to force strange family weirdness on my brother’s poor wife, two years ago we were opening presents on Christmas Eve and my mom chose the one for my brother to open. Now, my family has a few ULTIMATE Winslow inside things that make us special. One of them is knowing all the lines from Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas. My mom may as well have given us EACH the best present EVER, even though it was wrapped and had only my brother’s name on it. We of course popped it right in and began another new tradition.
My mom still can’t stand it (she hates how poor they are), but will tolerate to watch it. My sister-in-law on the other hand thinks we’re COMPLETELY nuts but is kind enough to humor us while we sing along. We all have our favorite scenes, and my brother does the best at singing all the songs. I personally love the flying squirrels and the ice sliding.


This year I am personally hoping a few games of Trivial Pursuit are planned, but we’ll have to keep the Battle of the Sexes game hidden from my brother or he’s liable to scream and run out of the house.

We did the gift exchange thing this year for the 3rd year. Without my parents, it was a little more difficult to pull names with only 5 of us, and two married couples – hence canceling them out for each other. But we managed, and I’m really excited with the things I bought. We also buy everyone stocking stuffers, which my mom started the tradition of those being completely random. Last year I can recall getting a cell phone stand in the shape of a pink stiletto that lights up when your phone rings, and silver glitter sunglasses in the shape of two hearts.

Good times.
Those are traditions we’ll be upholding this year, and passing them down to a new generation for the first time. However we won’t have mom’s breakfast fit for an army, or be opening presents Christmas morning at her house in our pj’s. But it’s what happens to every family: new families enter in, and we make adjustments. I’m looking forward to what new things we come up with. One thing that’s never gonna change is that my family is never dull.