We also get a genuine Maine (hand-made) wreath from Ansen's family every year!
2. Christmas Vacation. Have you seen Christmas Vacation? It's one of mine and Ansen's (and the whole Hatch family) favorite movies and we regularly quote from it. I'm thinking of Cousin Eddie in a black dickey with a white V-neck sweater drinking eggnog and laughing to myself . . . "I'd like my boss Frank Shirley right here with a big, red ribbon on his head . . . . hallelujah, holy sh*t, where's the Tylenol."
3. House lights . . . we are striving for the Christmas Vacation house (25,000 twinkle lights). We are far from it, but slowly working on it. Last year we added Big Frosty and Little Santa. My brother Jeff told my grandparents that he wanted an inflatable something to put in the yard for Christmas, so they sent him some money for his b-day (Dec. 16). This lit a fire under Ansen and he eventually found some deal at Smith's and we ended up with 2 Big Frosties and a Little Santa. Unfortunately, the Santa Snow Globe was sold out (Dang . . . we won't be the crazies with 10 blow up toys after all). Every evening Addison, Olivia and I go out and plug them in and then ceremoniously watch them inflate, which takes a lot longer than you would expect.
Okay so Frosty doesn't look so big in the picture and you can't see Santa, but try to imagine I guess.
These are the 3 main traditions we will abide by as long as Ansen lives. The one we haven't caught onto is the 3 a.m. Christmas awaking. Ansen's dad would wake everyone up at 3 a.m. to start the festivities. This actually started with Willard's dad. Willie-Baby is thoroughly disappointed that we can sleep until 8:00 a.m. on Christmas morning. Hey, we let Addison wake us up and she's a sleeper. Maybe he has some hope with Olivia.
What are the must-have traditions at your house?
6 comments:
Nick loves Christmas as well. It has been fun for me, since my dad was pretty bah-humbug(not totally his fault as he always had to work Christmas Eve, Christmas day or the day after, it is kind of hard to establish traditions on a fireman's schedule). But Nick loves everything about Christmas, the music, the lights, the tree, the decorations, "A Christmas Story," "Christmas Vacation." He even has his own professional Santa Suit and plays Santa at the ward Christmas party. And of course I bring the Gildea family tradion of the Anna Lee (rat dolls) decorations. The kids love them. And I always do the big Christmas baking like my mom did with 6 or 7 kinds of treats on a plate to take to the neighbors.
Your tree looks so pretty! Love the red ribbon throughout! Looks like you still like the decor you bought two years ago huh? Some of our traditions are advent calendars, watching Miracle on 34th street and It's a wonderful life with my mom, going to the hospital on Christmas eve and caroling with mine and my aunt mary's families(Our group is getting a bit big it's ridiculous), and always getting an orange at the bottom of our stockings. My parents weren't big "stocking people" so we usually got maybe a candy bar and we could always count on the big orange in the bottom. Did we eat them you ask? No, but it's tradition!
I must be the biggest scrooge. 1) we have the littlest fake tree ever--like 6 ft. tall. 2) I've never seen that movie before. 3) no wreath on my door--not eve a fake one. 4) no lights on our house or blow up items.
I'm not great at being consistent each year, but we ALWAYS open present on Christmas day, does that count?
No really, we do have some. Every Christmas we have a big Christmas breakfast (around noon) at Nate's parents house. We always have lifesaver books in our stalkings. We always read about the birth of Christ in the scriptures on Christmas Eve and listen to the Motabs sing a song from the Messiah.
We've started some new traditions that I like--one is that we have a Christmas party with my family on Christmas Eve in Davis County where I live. The grandkids play piano songs or do some performance, we eat a nice fancy meal, and we enjoy each other's company. This way we have more time as individual families on Christmas day.
All of your decorations look so pretty! I would totally be a real tree person every year, but we haven't always been able to afford it, and we have no place for one in our little house. I have 3 little fake trees that are up on a movie cabinet, that I decorate, but as soon as we move (someday), I think we will always have a real tree. I am totally one who loves to have outside lights, but whoever built these lovely townhomes, didn't put any outlets on the outside of the building, therefore the box full of outdoor decor has been sitting in storage for 3 years now!! I can't wait to use it again someday! The other thing that I would consider to be a tradition at Christmas time would be Snow. But odviously not in AZ.
Christmas Vacation is an absolute MUST if you are a Hatch! Ryan talked to Burt right after Thanksgiving and he had already watched it 3 times. So our FHE that night after the girls were in bed was watching it ourselves.
Ryan was also disappointed that he married a fake-tree loving girl. Maybe one of these days when we get our own place I'll let him go chop down a Christmas tree again. The Thanksgiving before I had Brooklyn was spent on Marv's property at the Grand Canyon searching for trees. Five Hatch men, 4 trucks, 2 chain saws, and 2 trailers. It was amazing!
As for the lights, we used to have quite the collection when we lived in Utah. Ryan would get so excited. He had two reindeer and a waving santa on the roof, with icicle lights around the rest of the house. We're looking forward to having our own place so we can decorate again! Seeing your pictures makes me miss it!
Merry Christmas to you guys!
These days it seems like the only traditions we have are to be traveling, moving, or to just generally be stressed! Now that things will finally be normal we are going to be having Christmas in the summer. Our lives are just not normal...
Your house looks great! Love the lights and the festiveness!
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