Holidays!

This is my favorite time of year, really! Because it starts to get colder and I can wear clothes more comfortably. My Mediterranean blood keeps me warmer than necessary and with all those layers (and I do love to layer!) I just get SO over heated when walking around in the freezing cold. It's hard to find a nice middle.

I also love that it's a time that everyone gets into a cheery mood and people are into sharing and giving. It also reminds me that it's a shame that people don't feel such moods all year round. I think that if they truly followed that spirit it'd make a huge shift in society. Alright, I'm not getting on a soap box here and preaching... I'll save it for another day.

I really love this time of year because of Christmas and Chanukah! I remember celebrating with Jewish friends of mine and being invited to share their festivities. (My family has Jewish heritage wayyyyy back, but I embrace it as it's a part of me and the blood that's been passed down). Then, Christmas growing up was fun until I was about 12 (I think it was that age). So, as I was invited to Temple throughout the year and celebrated most Jewish holidays with said friends, I would celebrate Christmas Eve with my paternal Grandmother's side of the family and Christmas day with my paternal Grandfather's family... and my mom's family was on the other side of the state so we shared phone calls.

This time of year reminds me of the great Christmas Eves that I had as a kid. I grew up with grandparents who were alcoholics and heavy smokers and the rest of the family was pretty much the same. If they didn't smoke, then they drank, and if they were regular smokers then they created memorable drinking experiences. Anyways-
There were tacos, burritos, chiles of all kinds, and lots of other Spanish/Mexican food that was handmade by my beautiful Great Grandmother (I hope that my hair grays like hers did). Some extremely dark haired man would dress as Santa, and you always knew which guy did it because of their body shape and voice; as well as having a huge pile of gifts that we all opened and adults argued over.
That was, traditionally, how it went.

This family is still rather dysfunctional, so there were some key moments in my childhood like:

• not being able to leave to attend the festivities until my Grandmom had fed the dog it's dinner at their regular dinner time.
• said Grandmother getting wasted and hoping my dad didn't leave without her (because she drove with us & my Grandfather drove by himself in his truck).
• crawling under tables to get to what you want (food, drink, gift).
• getting smushed between grown adults arguing and saying things they should say infront of children and hearing your madre scream, "DON'T TALK LIKE THAT INFRONT OF MY KIDS!"
• getting all dressed up.
• eating.
• eating a lot.
• watching everyone get along before all the alcohol set in.. then the arguments happened.
• being the only girl.

Actually, being the only girl did a lot for me. After this gathering we would go to my Grandmom's house and open up presents there. We would play WFMZ 100.7 because they played Christmas music and eat more food, make a mess, and clean up all over again. We would be there till 3-4 am. It was always such good times. I LOVED Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day we would sleep in, open up our gifts, get some time to play with them, and then we had to get ready to go to my other Great Grandparent's house. I hated Christmas Day. Seriously. We had to sit at their house for hours after we ate Christmas Dinner. I don't like ham, there was Christmas ham and some other stuff I didn't eat. I'd sit and alternate between listening to my walkman and reading a book for hours. My Great Grandmother had this shrill voice and she talked about all sorts of people, even people my parents didn't know and she just went on and on and on. The best part about leaving was that we left with a lot of tins of her homemade butter cookies.

(When I was in Munich for the Christmas Markets I stayed at a place that had an indoor market for a church. I was browsing and found a couple bags of these butter cookies that looks exactly like my Great Grandmothers!! I snatched all those up and, sure enough, they tasted exactly like them too! I smiled and shivered at the same time, but it was a familiar taste in a far away place).

On Thanksgiving Day my tía and I were reminiscing and she remembered two good stories:

After all the gifts were open we would just clean up by picking up handfuls of wrapping paper and putting everything in big garbage bags. Apparently, Aunt Connie's purse was under a good bit of wrapping paper and was thrown out! Of course, this was probably hours after the gifts were open and more booze were consumed. Everyone had to go through the garbage bags and look for her purse.

As recounted by my tía: "I remember this clearly because I was wearing this dress that I absolutely hated... your dad and I were in the backseat of the car and mom was really drunk and needed help getting to and into the car. Well, she didn't close her door the whole way because one turn we took she nearly fell out of the car and my dad reached over to pull her back into the car [insert lots of giggles]. He must have really had to pull her because I remember he was complaining about his arm and shoulder hurting the next day."

As unfortunate as some of these memories are, they are vivd in my mind and I sometimes miss the concept of family gathering. I could do without the heavy smoke and alcohol and bickering, but I miss family gatherings. Often I catch myself laughing hard about some of these gatherings, because the arguments were so ridiculous and unnecessary... why would adults waste their time? Most of these people, except for my tía, are long gone from my present day life. Most don't keep in touch or are speaking terms for silly reasons. It's a shame.

Now, it's just my madre and I. We will watch some movies, with a connecting theme, make the most un-Christmas dish you can make, and sit in our pijames all day. It's just what we do. A couple times it's been interrupted, but that was because we were taking care of my other Great Grandmother. We still all stayed in our pijames, watched a movie, and ate dinner... but a more Thanksgiving-esque dinner. My other family is in New Mexico, my tía is always in mind and loved.

I wanted to share my Christmas memories that have been whirling through my mind as of late.

What sort of traditions do you have? Any memories to share? Any non-traditional traditions?