Our family has some holiday traditions that have stuck with us year after year and some that we’ve tried once or twice and they haven’t caught on, even though most of them were lots of fun. We thought we’d share some of our memorable photos and traditions and ask you to share yours with us. We are also having a contest on our Facebook page so submit your photos for a chance to win! Here’s a link to our page.
Our best and most time-honored tradition is a game we play on Christmas Eve. We can’t tell you the game because we never know what it is until Christmas Eve. You see…our sister Angie creates a new game each year and they are always looked forward to with much anticipation. They could be a game of Family Trivial Pursuit or a version of some TV game with questions we may or may not know. Whatever the game, it is always the highlight of the evening and creates quite a raucous atmosphere! Prior to Christmas, Angie and our mom have spent a lot of time creating the game, buying white elephant gifts and wrapping them so everyone goes home with something. One year Tina won and there was an engagement ring in the prize box!!! I think the winner was fixed that year! This year it won’t be the same without our mom…for Angie or any of the rest of us. But I hope we can continue the tradition for the next generation to take part in.
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One year one of Angie’s game prizes was a little glass duck that Bryan lovingly named the Peking Duck. That led to many antics about the Peking Duck and lo and behold, the following year Angie received the duck under the tree. For probably at least ten years Angie and Bryan had to come up with increasingly creative ways to “sneak” the duck into the other person’s hands. That got pretty hilarious too. Once it got old, I think they both tried for at least 3 years to end it and Angie came up with the winning play. The head of Peking Duck is now immortalized and sits in our cabin in Pinetop. He is cemented into a mosaic dish that we use as an ashtray. Oh that duck brings back such good memories! Here’s a picture of Bryan reading a letter from the “Duck”. I don’t know why I don’t have a picture of it but I think I will soon…
We’ve had many different years with Santa hats, reindeer antlers, blinking light necklaces, goofy sweaters and who knows what else! It seems on most years someone shows up with a little something for everyone to wear. You’ll notice some of them in the photos here. One year the DeWitt boys went thrift store and closet shopping for goofy sweaters and wore them with Santa hats. For the rest of the night they acted like some combination of Dumb & Dumber, Elf or some other character they made up.
In 2005, the DeWitt boys started a Christmas light contest between their two houses. We had a caravan and went to check them out and vote. I have no idea how many hours they put in and how many lights, but it was great fun. It was far too hard for me to vote but someone made me so I voted and kept my ballot what I hoped was secret! In the end, Pete won and Mark had created a silly traveling trophy for the winner. The following year, we added more contestants and made a much bigger deal out of it. We even rented a trolley so we could all go together and had Christmas music and lots of Christmas snacks on board. Chris and Hannah won that year. I think everyone realized how much work and stress was involved in that one and it kind of fizzled the following year. Plus, the trolley was booked and after that fun ride it wouldn’t have been the same to caravan in separate cars again.
Last year we had a gingerbread house contest. It was a blast but I’m afraid it will go the way of the lights contest because it was a LOT of work. I seem to recall that one of the dogs took a bite out of one of the houses before it ever even made it to the judging! I must say there were some awesome displays of creativity there. Here’s one that is modeled after our parents’ cabin in Mormon Lake…and I loved the nativity set too! When our family has a contest there is some strong competition involved…we go ALL out!
It doesn’t matter what your tradition is…singing Christmas Carols together, volunteering at a soup kitchen, delivering gifts to a family in need, special recipes and the list is endless. What matters is that you are together…with family, friends and anyone else who needs someone to celebrate with. Our holidays would not be the same without the love and togetherness with our family and friends. They are something we look forward to and make the most of every year. We can’t always all make it, but we certainly miss the ones who don’t.
Be sure you are freezing these special moments in time by taking photos of them. If you don’t, someday you’ll be wishing you had! Photos preserve the special moments and help you remember them. You don’t know you’re missing them until you don’t have them!
We hope you will share your traditions or your special holiday moments, either in a comment on this blog or on our Facebook page. Whether you do or don’t participate in our little contest, we hope your holiday season is filled with love, peace, joy, hope…and lots of good times and special moments!
Contest Rules:
Email us (photosisters@cox.net) your favorite holiday photo with a note about your special tradition or a special holiday event you participated in. We will add them to an album on our Facebook page. If you are not a Facebook user, you can still submit your photo to us and we will enter it for voting. Deadline for photo submission is Sunday, December 19. Vote for your favorites by liking or commenting on your photo and get all your Facebook friends to vote too.
Voting ends on Friday, December 24. The winner with the most votes (likes and comments) will receive a free 11x14 mounted photo from your next photo session. We don’t want to leave out our friends who live out of state and would like to enter the contest. If you win and we’re not able to schedule a photo session with you, you may submit your own photo for printing and mounting.
Remember:
Entry Deadline: Sunday, 12/19/10
Voting Deadline: Friday, 12/24/10
Maximum entries per person: 3 (each must have a story)
All you need to do is submit your photo and have all your friends vote for you!
Blessings to you and yours,
Karen and Tina
“The merry family gatherings - the old, the very young; the strangely lovely way they harmonize in carols sung. For Christmas is tradition time - traditions that recall the precious memories down the years, the sameness of them all.”
- Helen Lowrie Marshall
And the angel said unto them, "Fear not! For, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, Which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."
- Luke 2:10-12
Geesh that was a good post. I thought I had the coolest family until I attended Ryan's birthday recently and then just read your past Christmas experiences. Now I want to be placed under your tree for Christmas to be kept. I am grateful to have my own family now where I can keep some of the old traditions and start some new (like random games each year) to make it our own very special Christmas. Thanks for giving me much to think about.
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