Holiday Traditions!

Happy Wednesday!

This has been my 3rd Christmas with my current boyfriend, Jeremiah, and every year I have gone with his family to find a tree and chop it down. We go to this amazing nursery in Western PA where we can walk through their acres of rolling h.ills and pick out the perfect tree. We all share a hot apple cider together, load the tree onto the truck, and then go out to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants. It is definitely one of my favorite days out of the year.

I am from a large Italian family and the Christmas season starts at Thanksgiving and last through the New Year. I LOVE it!
We all love to bake and cook so there is no shortage of food, goodies, and spirits, of course! My Mom and I bake mostly the traditional Italian cookies (Pizelles, Wafflettes, Italian Knots, etc.) with my sister, cousins, and Aunt baking every day and traditional cookies, plus one or two new kinds they find this year. My (future) Mother in Law is strictly Italian baking and cooking. I usually have Christmas Eve and Christmas. We feast day and night. On Christmas Eve we all go to midnight Mass.

Christmas traditions eh? Oh boy! On my mother's side of the family, I have four other cousins who are right around the same age as my brother Ryan and I. Growing up it became a family tradition to have the children of the family perform a "Christmas Talent" each year at our family get together. When we were really young, too young to care how about utterly embarrassing this all really was, it was something we all really got into and didn't mind doing. We would read Christmas stories, do silly dances, or sometimes just recite a holiday poem. As harmless as it was, our parents found joy in dressing us up in ridiculous Christmas outfits and watching us perform "cute"..(AKA embarrassing) stuff in front of the family. Two of my cousins were musicians, one playing the flute annually and the other a fine pianist. As nice and easy as it was for them to come up with something to do every year, my brother andI and my two other cousins, (both boys) always had to dig really deep to find something creative to do. One fine year sticks out in my mind each and every year around this time. HAHAHA. Having been Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Halloween one year, (Ryan Raphel and myself as Leonardo) we decided to recycle our costumes for one final horrah. (PS, this was ALL my mother's idea) My mom put together a "priceless" and I mean PRICEless, rendition of Jingle Bells... TMNT style. I believe it went a little something like.. "Jingle Bells, Turtle Shells, Christmas time is near. We've cleaned the sewer and waxed our shells, please visit us Santa Dear" haha, I can't completely remember the words anymore, but none the less, Ryan and I stood fully dressed as turtles one year and sang this ridiculous song for all to hear. I'll never forget it and neither will the family. It has definitely gone down in the books as one of the most "memorable" Christmas performances in family history. Come to think of it, I know we have it on video somewhere; I should probably put that fine piece of work on youtube.