[john_jcb]

Tuberoller's Christmas tree thread got me thinking of family holiday traditions.

Our family tradition centered around Christmas Eve dinner. Everything we ate was fresh from Puget Sound our from our garden. It varied a little bit year to year but the basics were always the same.

Cold Dungeness crab from our traps would kick off the meal. It would have been cooked and cleaned a few hours before and cooled before serving. we all would sit around the table cracking crab and eating it with saltines and mayonnaise. so simple but so good.

Next came the soup. My Grandmother always made this one. It was always clam chowder (the white kind). The clams were always dug at the morning low tide. The potatoes came from the garden. One of the last of these dinners as a family was funny and sad all at once. We had finished the crab and were served our chowder. We started eating and everyone commented that it was potato soup not clam chowder. My Grandmother had forgotten the clams. We all had a good laugh at the time as it was an easy fix. The sad part was that this was our first indication that my Grandmother was coming down with Alzheimer's.

Next we would normally have fresh salmon that we had caught. Some years we would not be lucky and we would buy a salmon at the Pike Place Public Market or have a Beef Roast.

For desert apple pie and cheddar cheese. Apples were from our trees.

We still do parts of this today but it is not the same. It took a couple of days to get everything and I always looked forward to it.

So this is one of my family traditions, lets hear one of yours.

 

[Polygon]

On Christmas Eve we are a little more laxed about dinner. We tend to watch a couple of movies and snack on meats and crackers like smoked salmon with some Ritz crackers and cream cheese, salami, ham, and different crakers and snacks. Then we sometimes open one present on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas morning we get up around seven and open all the presents while listening to Christmas music. Then that night we have the big dinner.

 

[Hiker]

On Christmas Eve my family always goes to my uncles house for dinner and extended relative gifts. We follow Polish traditions of no meat on Christmas Eve, pirogies, kielbasa and kapusta (sp?). We also share opatki (also sp?) which is like a thin wafer. Each family member would get a large piece of wafer. Then we would all gather in a room and go from one relative to the next, breaking a piece of their wafer off and eating it while reflecting on the past year and wishing eachother good luck in the new year. Sometimes it ends up being quite emotional, especially for the older family members.

On Christmas morning, my family wakes up early to open gifts around the tree while listening to Christmas music. Immediately after, we eat breakfast and head to church. They we would head upstate New York at my aunts house for the day with more family. We sleep over there and have her "famous" pancakes the next morning before heading back home.

I always look forward to these events every year. It is just so much fun to see all the family member that you haven't seen since . . . Thanksgiving!