How do you make the season bright?

December 12, 2012
by Kendra

Happy 12/12/12! This time tomorrow I will be blissfully done with all my final papers/exams, etc. And this time in one week I will be waking up to see the Olympic Mountains outside my window, spending my first Christmas away from my family with my husband. So many exciting changes to look forward to, and as I endeavor to make change I think on the traditions that have helped make this time of year so precious to me.

Some traditions I hold dear are food and presents (shocking I’m sure!). My family loves to gather in the kitchen and cook for hours on Christmas Eve. While we have a feast for Christmas Eve dinner we also feast throughout Christmas day, making it a relaxing, elastic waistband kind of day. But despite years of making homemade cinnamon rolls and potato soup and ceviche, we still have yet, after 20+ years of making Christmas dinner as a family, to find the perfect Christmas Eve dessert. Even though there is no perfect sweet treat to look forward to each year, it has become its own dysfunctional tradition: what new-fangled dessert do we try this year? We’ve done chocolate pudding, coconut cake, cookies, chocolate cake, and homemade ice cream. And despite all of their delicious success, we still prefer to try again next year. This odd little tradition is very close to my heart.

Another tradition I hold dear is wrapping presents. Odd right? But since I was 16, I’ve sat in my mother’s work room for hours upon hours making perfect hospital folds and sealing packages with invisible tape while my mother makes the most beautiful bows and the TV plays ‘Christmas in Connecticut’ or the ‘Muppet Christmas Carol.’ It is our quiet time between cooking and holiday parties, when we can reminisce and cry at a movie we’ve seen at least 20 times together.

This year I won’t be wrapping presents for hours or finding the perfect imperfect dessert, but I will be taking these traditions to my new family and in years to come sharing these traditions with my children. That is what makes the season bright for me.

So as people fly home, drive home, stay home for the holidays I wonder what are your holiday traditions? What do you do with your family to keep the season bright? What meals do you cook? What church service do you attend? How does your family open presents? How do you show your loved ones gratitude and love during the season?

Peace, Love and OT to all and happy break to students!

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