I've never really made any Christmas traditions; when I did actively participate in the holiday, I was more into making sure I wasn't too broke to make it happen for the kids. I got the "opportunity" to do all the work while the spouse got to be the social butterfly...yeah, guess who drew the short straw?
When the kids became teenagers and the Giant Eagle grocery store gave double fuel perk points for buying gift cards, I was sooooooo there! That meant putting the shopping experience in the hands of my then teenage children....super awesome for me! The first year wasn't so great, but the following year, they got to indulge on post holiday consumerism....proud to be American huh??
Now, the kids are grown and the spouse is gone; for awhile me and the kids wandered in the wilderness trying to find our way after their dad passed away. This year was a year of firsts; I and my son traveled a four hour drive (in some nasty weather to boot) to visit my daughter since she didn't get time off work to come home. We chose a non-traditional Christmas dinner of homemade meatballs, mac and cheese, chicken and rice (my daughter's favorite meal in the whole wide world), and lots of green vegetables. Desert was my family famous (and greatly appreciated) sweet potato pie and a jello chocolate-peppermint desert. No one wanted the traditional Christmas dinner, and I don't think my hips and rear end would've survived it anyway. We watched tons of stuff on dvd and even caught a Modern Family and How I met your mother marathon. I even was good enough to do my walk at home video on youtube so I didn't gain a ton of weight on the food-fest!
This year, I avoided the usual Christmas mellodrama dealing with my family. But it was there waiting on me when I got back home....yay for me! It was overall a decent holiday; glad it'll be a year before I have to deal with it again.....
