It's that time of year when family traditions really start to come out, the good, the bad and the ugly. What will you do this year? From Dad coming home drunk to baking cookies with Mom there are all kids of memories.

I remember baking cookies and I loved decorating the sugar cookies with my mom right at my side. That is one of my favorites. Besides that one thing we did, which as a kid I didn't appreciate that much , is we went to a Polish shrine and lite a candle then went to mass and the religious gift store. As a kid and teenager I didn't appreciate that much but my mom always wanted to go. I think it started off with my Grand mom taking my mom since it is the only Polish speaking church in our area. But now as an Adult I long to go. I did make it last year with my Dad and then afterwords we made jokes that Polish people are long winded. We were at the mass said in Polish and neither of us are fluent so it felt like it lasted for 2 hours! It's a great tradition and I hope to pass that on to Nicholas one day. Heck maybe he will even learn a little Polish.

Another one of my favorite Christmas memories from my teenage years was going to Nursing homes in the area and singing Christmas carols with my school choir. Sometimes it was really hard to do - some of the folks in the nursing homes are really bad off. But after we would sing we would sit and chat with the folks for a little while. Despite it being hard at times I feel it is really a strong character builder. You learn about respect for our elders and also how something so simple as a conversation can brighten someones day or year. This spirit is something we really need to take with us even outside the holiday season.

Of course I think my all time favorite Christmas tradition is getting the old Christmas Tree. We would all pack into the car on Christmas Eve and dad would take his truck. We would go over to the local Mower shop and pick out the fattest tree we could find. We actually didn't have a Christmas tree it always seem to look like a Christmas Bush. (Douglas Firs). Dad always seem to struggle to get it into the stand properly. No matter what it was always crooked and then he would adjust it with wires. Dad would put the lights on and get the train track working. Then mom and us kids would cover every inch of the tree with decorations and tinsel and drink coco from Santa shaped mugs.

As an adult we changed the tradition a little. Now we take both cars and go to the local garden center. I really prefer the look of the Frasier fir so that what we go with. We haven't had to many problems with getting it into the stand although last year we put a big scrape on the ceiling when we stood the tree up, DOH! We go about two weeks before Christmas because I love having the tree up earlier then Christmas eve. Since Nicholas is a toddler this year I wonder if we have to only decorate the top half!

I'm getting in the mood!!