When Steve and I were first married, we faced a dilemma when it came to Christmas and we learned early on to compromise and meld the two family traditions together to become our own:
Then: MY family always opened one present on the evening of Christmas Eve (a sacrilege in HIS family!) and made Swedish Pancakes on Christmas morning. HIS family always had a Christmas Eve program and then everyone slept over at the family home (when Steve was a little boy, that family home would have been his Gram's house.)
Now: We open one present, but it is always Christmas pajamas to help us sleep better. We have a Christmas program at Bam's house and when our kids were little we would sleep over at her house. Steve and I would put the kids to bed, then sneak back to our house for our own private "celebration." Now, we just come back to our house and our own beds and for years we would wake up early to have our own family Christmas and then head over to Bam's by 7 a.m. to be with all the cousins that were still sleeping over at Bam's. As our own kids get married, we'll have them sleep at OUR house with their new little families.
Also, I make Swedish Pancakes for Steve's family on Christmas morning. It took years and a lot of fortitude on my part, but this is now a well-established tradition in his family. I have even had his sisters call me for the recipe so they can make the pancakes!
Then: MY family had Christmas trees that were fat, full and round and freshly cut at the tree farm. HIS family had what we call a "Smith" tree, the kind that has branches that stick straight out and are a little more sparse (is that a Douglas Fir? A Blue Spruce? I don't really know my pine trees....) For years, our compromise was: one year a Van Horn tree, the next year a Smith tree. Until Steve got sick and tired of stringing the lights on and just went out and bought a pre-lit tree (it's a Van Horn tree...fat, full and round!)
Now: the tradition is to gather around the assembled tree and "fluff" it while we listen to Christmas music and decorate it with the angel ornaments that we have collected from our travels.
Over the years, Steve and I have developed some of our own family traditions, which include watching a version (or many) of "The Christmas Carol," driving around looking at the lights, Sub4Santa with the Mordues, eating dinner off of the Christmas plates, and Christmas stories at night (this is getting harder to do with busy teenagers).
This year, as we sat in the audience at Hale Centre Theater, I could hear Steve quoting many of the lines from "The Christmas Carol." It is his most favorite Christmas play, and I have grown to love it myself. "God Bless us, everyone!"
