Time for New Traditions

The other day I realized that for the last 50+ years of my life, I have lived out someone else's traditions:  my grandmothers, my mom's, and my mother-in-laws.  And I have none of my own.  So, since some of the matriarchs are now gone, and mom's pretty much out of the picture, it's just time to pass the torch.   My sister and I are discussing new traditions we'd like to start, and will be asking our kids after this holiday season what they'd like to do-- ones they'd like to start--or not, as the case may be.

  And once again, we realized we are just not our mother.  As kids,Mom used to make us put ketchup in a silver and crystal container, to have ketchup with our fries.  Apparently, the ketchup bottle was just a tad too gauche'.  As teenagers, we just blew her off but as kids, seriously, she really did.  OMG....overkill much?  When we touched on mom's Christmas Eve dinners and their gorgeous grandiosity, my sister and I were screaming laughing.  I told her since she is older than me, it's now her job, and she told me to **** myself.  And we laughed even harder.

One tradition I had totally forgotten about involved my brother, Doo, his wife, Moo, and their girls, and Moo's teenage nephews.  When Moo & Doo's girls were small, close to Christmas, they'd go reindeer tracking / hunting in an unfamiliar to the girls, woodsy park.  They would previously have enlisted the help of the teenage nephews to sprinkle dry dog food ( for reindeer poop), candy corn dropped on the ground like it had fallen out of Santa's pocket, and a set of old deer hooves to make hoof prints.  And though that would be enough to convince most kids, they... went.... even... further.  The nephews would hide a ways away in the bushes, and make "reindeer noises"--snorts, grunts, etc., and would even jingle some jingle bells....just a little.... for that total Hollywood effect.  Once the girls were scared and excited out of their minds, they'd take them somewhere for dinner.  Please....like they could eat after that?? 

My sister and I decided that next year, Reindeer Tracking is going to be ON, for Hud, Had, and Avery and for any other grandchildren that appear over the next several years.  When I told Fred about it last night, he was ready to pull out his old Santa suit and scare the living daylights out of them.  No, Fred, nooooooo.  That's just wrong.