Grownup Christmas Traditions

Now that I'm back from my Christmas trip to California, and since it's been over two weeks since I last blogged, I thought I'd write something up about my holiday. It was an exciting trip, with adventures ranging from the Mystery of the Bloody Pawprints (unsolved), the Throw the Dog into the Reservoir Challenge, and the Part of the Story Where Jin Sees Something Invisible and Pulls Me To the Ground and Drags Me Over the Rocks* (ouch). And while I don't want to focus entirely on the material part of Christmas, I did walk away with some wonderful, thoughtful gifts from wonderful family and friends - a gravity-defying word game, multicolored running socks, a Kindle, a pizza stone, a cookbook to use for family dinners, and even a covered parking spot at my house for the winter.

But I remember Christmases most for the experiences. Christmas with my family has changed a lot over the last ten or twenty years, as we've all grown older and childhood Christmas traditions gradually fade into memory. Some of the fundamentals are still in place. We still exchange gifts, eat a turkey dinner on Christmas Eve, read Luke 2. But other once-important traditions like making sugar cookies; setting out cookies, carrots, and milk for Santa and his reindeer; acting out the nativity story; opening a single present on Christmas Eve; spending the night in sleeping bags on the floor of the same bedroom; getting Christmas pajamas from our parents; and driving up to Utah a day or two after Christmas,** have all gradually fallen by the wayside.

But other traditions have sprung up in their place. Although we call them traditions, they're more like routines, and they come and go. If we like a new activity one year, we remember it and repeat it the next. If it survives for two years, it might get called "tradition," meaning it might be slightly disappointing if we didn't do it the next year, and then we'd move on to new new traditions. These new traditions are always in flux, and as our family changes and grows they will likely remain in flux. In recent years we've had traditional Dr. Robotnik's Magic Bean Machine tournaments,*** Mammoth Mountain ski weekends, Christmas Day trips to the movie theater, Killer Bunnies, and Christmas dinner at Chevy's to escape the leftover turkey.

One of my favorite "traditions," the grueling Sacred Heart Hill Run, got renewed this year. My brother and I started this tradition shortly after he returned from his mission years ago. The run itself is not horribly long (my brother measured it to be 6.66 miles), but gets its name and reputation from a mile-and-a-half long hill right in the middle that summits at a private Catholic school called Sacred Heart Academy. Having a Catholic School as the (literal) high point of the run might counter the sacrilegious mile count.

My brother introduced me to the run the summer after he returned from his mission, and we ran it again on Christmas Eve morning that year, and then ran it again the next Christmas Eve. Two years in a row made it a tradition. But then Eric became an avid cyclist, and started "forgetting" to bring his running shoes at Christmas because he preferred bike rides. I was left to uphold the lonely tradition on my own for many years, even after I gave up hope that my brother would ever join me again. Then, in January, Eric married a runner, and this year he asked me if we were going to run Sacred Heart, as though his last five years of non-participation had never happened. But I can forgive those last five years of non-participation, because I still really enjoy the time with my brother, and it was fun to initiate Catherine (and, technically, my niece/nephew-to-be).

Anyway, I hope everyone else enjoyed their Christmases as well, their own new and old traditions, their time with family and friends.

Merry Christmas!

* Yes, I know that I just capitalized a whole bunch of prepositions. In case you were wondering.
** Although technically, most of us still drove up to Utah a day or two after Christmas this year...
*** This is a video game that is to Sonic the Hedgehog what Dr. Mario is to Super Mario Brothers. I'm pretty sure no one but my family has ever played it.