Sunday, December 22, 2013

Holiday Traditions

We've just received a fresh blanket of snow up here in Wisconsin and we're guaranteed another white Christmas.  I've run to the grocery one last time to get everything that my husband will need to make our Christmas dinner and my stomach is already growling with excitement.

As you Christmas steadily approaches, I was thinking of some of the family traditions that I look forward to every year.  One is my mother making these candy cane-shaped coffee cakes.  About a week before Christmas, she's prepare mounds of dough that would be rolled, snipped, filled, carefully shaped, and decorated like candy canes filled with apples.  Yum!  She would them give them to our neighbors about us.  It was only years later that I found out how much many of our neighbors looked forward to those coffee cakes.

I'm not much of a baker, though I do like to attempt cookies every once in a while.  I look forward to seeing the Christmas movies that start to populate every channel during the month of December.  Growing up, Thanksgiving wasn't Thanksgiving until we watched Planes, Trains and Automobiles (which still has the power to make me cry at the end).  And the family favorite for Christmas is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  I think watching it make us feel a little better about our own chaotic Christmas.  That no matter how insane things had gotten or how wrong events had turned, you realize that maybe the Grizwalds are having a little more trouble.  Also, it's a good way to remember that you just need to laugh about it.  Clark also set the bar for what it takes to decorate a house with light.  One day, we will reach those lofty heights of brilliant exterior illumination.

 Personally, I love finding a quiet night and settling in with an old classic, White Christmas.  I love the soothing sound of Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney singing.  One of my favorite songs from that movie is "Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me" sung by Rosemary Clooney.  I love watching Danny Kaye tap dance across the stage with Vera Ellen.  I love the pageantry.  I love the costumes.  And I love the story.

Finally, one of my favorite traditions is listening to Christmas carols.  I have far too many favorites, but I think the one that keeps rising to the top is Carol of the Bells.  In closing, I will leave you with this interesting rendition of Carol of the Bells from my childhood and pray that you and your family have a wonderful holiday season.



And if you're looking for something to read while relaxing this holiday season, my Asylum Tales stories are currently on sale. For more information, please click here.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Enjoyed you Holiday tradition.

Unknown said...

Forgot my Christmas tradition. It is setting out the stockings. Even as old as hubby & I are we still do this. And they are filled with goodies and surprises. It is one of my favorite.

Jocelynn Drake said...

When I was a kid, we hanged our stockings along the railing going up the stairs. In the morning, they were always found on the coffee table in the living room because they were too heavy with candy to hang on the railing. I used to think that Santa was just being silly cramming a piece of fruit in the bottom of the stocking under all the candy. Silly old man. :)

Diana said...

Merry Christmas Kerrilyn - looking forward to 2014 and more books!!