My Christmas Traditions

I know as a single woman, it is expected to be with a family on Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Well, on Thanksgiving I am covered because friends always invite me somewhere, sometimes but not always.  I decided that regardless of that, I still keep these holidays special to me in my own way and so I made a list of traditions I love and some I think I may incorporate:

1) No After Thanksgiving Black Friday shopping--this is thanks to moving to the Bay Area and seeing how crazed shoppers are here. (This is like Ramadan for me as a recovering shopaholic)
2) Celebrating Advent by going to Mass on Sunday
3) Putting up the tree and decorations
4) Lighting my candles on Winter Solstice
5) Watching A Christmas Carol and Miracle on 34th Street on DVD
6) Go see the Nutcracker
7) Attend Christmas Eve Mass
8) See a movie on Christmas and eat at Denny's (I started this in 2002 with my sister)

New ideas for this year:
1) Attend Las Posadas (Spanish-American tradition here in the US and thought it would be fun)
2) Play board games with someone (I miss this a lot.  My sister and I always played board games on Christmas)
3) Make cinnamon rolls (miss this too)
4) Throw a Christmas/Hannakuh party (don't know if this will happen)
5) Find some Jewish or non-Christian friends and go out for Chinese food (just because they don't celebrate doesn't mean we can't have fun)
6) Go out for Chinese New Year (a tradition that is core in San Francisco)

 There is one work tradition I have had that I have been in charge of every year since I have been employed:
1) Donations for the Contra Costa County Food Bank  (I love this because it gives me a chance to decorate a bit and remind people the meaning of Christmas.)

So in other words, though I don't have traditions that revolve around family, these are special to me in keeping the holidays close to my heart.  And I would never change these. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Note: This was from my previous blog written in 2009, hope you enjoy!!! My friends and I, even after two months of finishing this book, are still discussing this great novel: Atonement, by Ian McEwan. I mean, usually when we have read a book, we only discuss it for one day, two to three days tops, but for Atonement--almost two months. I won't give away the plot for those who have not read the novel--however, part of our debate has been on the plot and some of the subplots and of the character Briony, herself. Was Briony mistaken or was she lying when she saw Robbie and Cecilia together in the library? Was she driven by jealousy or naivety of what she saw? When did she start to feel guilty after making false witness to the police? If she had not noticed them by the fountain the first time, what would she have thought when she saw the pair in the library, and would her statement to the police be different? Then we go on to the other characters: Paul Marshall, ...
Read more

Junot Diaz and His Use of Language

This is an assignment I just completed for my Latin American Literature class and felt this was a good topic to put up here.  Enjoy!!! When reading Junot Diaz's, “The Pura Principle”, I was noticing that Diaz went back and forth writing in English and then using Spanish phrases to capture the authenticity of the story. I say authenticity because most households that speak both English and Spanish speak with a hybrid of both languages. Though this was never practiced in my immediate family, my father's cousins' families did use a hybrid of both English and Spanish when speaking because they grew up learning both Spanish and English. It was more dominant when expressing emotions. Only my father and his siblings were able to keep up with their cousins in the interchanging of languages. Like his story, in the interview, Diaz switches back from Spanish to English on occasion. This is because this is authentic for him as he is familiar with both languages due to “...
Read more

Communication: What Happens When I Cannot Get Though

I have been contemplating something for weeks that has been bothering me since it happened.  Along with that, I am still bothered by the attitudes surrounding it.  After many weeks, I am still at the same conclusion; not only that I am still baffled by why others would not agree with my conclusion.  A few weeks ago, I was moving my things from my apartment to a storage area and was scrambling to find people to help.  I was in a bind because I had to be out by a certain date and my landlord had already made arrangements for another tenant to move in.  (Along with that I could not afford the increase in rent which would have gone from $1050 to $1395.  I don't have it).  I originally called a moving company to see if they could do the job, however every weekend until my move out date was booked and a weekday would not work for me because I couldn't get the time off.  I did manage to get two people to help me, a old colleague and his friend/roo...
Read more