Thanksgiving: This is a huge holiday for my dad's side of the family (Irish, we're Murphy's). There's usually about 30 of us there, and we're a very close family. Cousins are always finding ways to visit each other, everyone talks on a regular basis, no real dramas, etc. Nothing too special about this one, it's all very...traditional. The entire family goes to my Aunt & Uncle's river house on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The drinking starts within seconds of arrival, and doesn't stop until we get back in the car to head back home. We have a 5k race Friday morning, and then a really intense football game Friday afternoon. There's usually a Maryland basketball game on to captivate everyone's attention for a few hours, but this year is my cousin's first year at Auburn, so we'll be watching the Auburn - Bama game (another cousin just graduated from Bama) with great vigor. Games and heavy drinking with everyone at night, then some dope smoking with select siblings and cousins on the late night. It's a ton of fun for us, but nothing all that unique or crazy I don't think. My girlfriend of 1.5 years will be coming to meet about half the family she hasn't already met. Christmas: This one is a little less traditional. I always end up getting plastered on Christmas Eve Eve with old high school friends, and have to go to work on Christmas Eve. Work on Xmas Eve is just basically the company holiday party (Jewish owned) where people get awards for tenure, the CEO tells us how great the year was and that we'll be getting our 50% match in our 401k. There's also two beer trucks, an open bar, and a huge cookout. I get out of there around noon, and with the morning drinking on top of the hangover, I'm pretty sauced up. Here's where the tradition starts. A few high school friends meet up at the same dive bar around 12:30 and just drink for hours. (My one best buddy and I started this together, and it grows and diminishes with other "back it town" high school friends yearly) This started because this bar has really hot bartenders and waitresses, and we found out a bunch of years ago that going during the day on a holiday was perfect because we would have the complete attention of the hot workers, and that was our best chance to hook up with them. It's what Jesus would have wanted. Then we part our ways for our individual Christmas Eve traditions. Mine include trying to get all my X-mas shopping done near black out drunk after 4 pm on Christmas Eve. Then I pass out and miss mass with my family, but show up to spend the night at my parents house. Amazingly my parents and sisters still think this is funny. This exact sequence has happened the past 4 years. Christmas day is spent with the family. Christmas night is spent with many of the same friends from the day before, and we get strippers for my good friend's birthday, which happens to be on December 25. This is probably going to be the last year for the strippers, because my birthday buddy just knocked up his girlfriend and probably won't be able to do it anymore. And without the birthday boy being around, strippers on christmas night will be a tough sell to my girlfriend. This year my mother has decided the family spend Christmas at our lake house, which clearly cramps my style a bit. But I figure I can still go to the bar on the Eve, drive 2.5 hours with one eye open to the lakehouse, then leave on Christmas day with enough time to make the strippers. My buddy's family owns an oceanfront hotel, and he has agreed to get us all a penthouse for the strippers on christmas night. I was a founding father of this tradition, so there's no way I'm missing that.
It seems the only holiday tradition I have anymore is navigating the crowd in the DFAC. Since its just me, its not really, not a bad thing...I just tend to catch the holiday deployments.
It is not Thanksgiving unless I have the following conversations with my mother: One week before Thanksgiving: Mom: Do you want artichokes this year? Me: Of course! Gotta have stuffed artichokes. Mom: They're >fill in dollar amount< a piece. That's so expensive. Me: Yeah, but it's like that every year. They always go up the week before Thanksgiving. I don't care how much they are. Just get them. We only need 4 or 5 anyway. It's not a big deal. Mom: Alright I'll get them. Two days before Thanksgiving Mom: I don't think I'm going to get the artichokes. They're too expensive. Me: I have been having this same conversation with you for >insert number of years< Can you please just get them. I'll pay for them! I don't care how much they are. It's Thanksgiving. I want artichokes. I only eat them once a year. Mom: No, no, it's alright. I'll get them. Me: Jesus, you do this every year! On Thanksgiving day we stuff them, cook them, forget we have them because there's so much food, realize we forgot them, and eat them later in the evening. Before the feast we watch March Of The Wooden soldiers, the original black and white King Kong, and the original Mighty Joe Young. Yet for Christmas we wind up having shrimp and lobster and she never complains at all about how expensive it is. On Christmas eve I make sure the presents are set out for the kids and everyone is asleep before midnight so I can put on the Alistar Sim version of A Christmas Carol, light up a blunt and have a glass of wine. Best night of the year.
Growing up in a Jehovah's Witess household means there was no Christmas and all those heartwarming moments and traditions ya'll are mentioning. Over the years I either don't celebrate or do whatever the boyfriend of the moment's family does. It has always been a sad and stressful time of year. Now that I have my boys and a man who gets my particular mindset about this time of year, I am looking forward to celebrating this shit MY way. There is a tree and presents. I don't lie to my kids about the fat fucker who supposedly will bring them presents. I tell them he doesn't like them as much as other kids and so I buy them presents, because I do love them. There is a damn delicious meal because I love cooking for them and we then go streaking through the quad. Okay, so I am in a tradition forming type stage, we'll play it by ear, I guess.
Every year my mom cooks a massive Thanksgiving dinner, (with help of course.) She usually invites her best friend and her family over. We usually get drunk, play poker, and super mario. This has been going on for as long as I can remember. This year she has decided that she is not cooking at all. My brother has to work, and my sister is being dragged to the in-laws. She doesn't see the point in it. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and now it has just gone down the tubes. For the past four years my family hasn't celebrated Christmas. Now Thanksgiving is being boycotted. I hate the holidays.
When I was a kid, we had a tradition for Christmas Eve that I have now realized is really weird. My aunt used to dress up as a giant mouse and hand out Secret Santa gifts with a puppet.
For most of my life I have spent Thanksgiving with my mother's side of the family. During my childhood and early formative years it was always a terribly dull affair. At some juncture between the patriarch passing away and my reaching a socially acceptable drinking age it has come to be much less formal and, of course, exponentially more fun. The only real tradition in recent memory has been the consumption of gallons upon gallons of white wine. Last year I made a beer/wine run that required two trips to unload. For a party of eight. This year we're bucking tradition and getting together with a few couples who also hate holiday commutes for the feast. The men will rise early and meet at a boat ramp for fishing (for those not in the know, this is a mid-atlantic colloquialism which translates loosely to "heavy and reckless day-drinking.") Meanwhile the womenfolk will be faithfully slaving away in the kitchen or whatever. I haven't been this excited since lap dances were BOGO at the local titty bar.
Does anyone else come from a family where the men do the cooking and the women do the drinking and watching football?
LIKE YOU HAD TO FUCKING ASK. ...I watch it at least a dozen times over the holidays. Who the hell wouldn't?
The wife and I have a few simple Christmas traditions. We always watch three movies over the holidays; National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, The Trailer Park Boys Christmas Special and Its a Wonderful Life (usually on New Year's). We do the traditional turkey dinner on Christmas day, but its more what we do with the leftovers that has become the real tradition; turkey fajitas. I cook the leftover turkey meat in vinegar/lime juice/soya sauce mixture, along with a liberal amount of hot sauce and chipolte powder. After 30 to 45 minutes of cooking, the meat just falls apart while absorbing the sauce. The closest thing I could compare it to is pulled pork. I serve that with the stir fried bell pepper, onion, jalapeno, a mound of shredded 4-year old cheddar, sour cream, and warm wraps. I can't even remember how this got started, but the wife loves them.