Oh my god, when did it get to be December 16th? Not only are we less than 10 days away from Christmas, but we’re less than 3 days away from the day I fly out to Huntsville, and the amount of stuff I have to do between now and then doesn’t seem humanly possible. I’m the queen of procrastination, and while I’ve been hoping for years that I’d outgrow it, all signs point to “not any time soon.” In the next few days, I’ve got to:

• Wrap up about ten gazillion projects at work (possibility status: not likely - I can at least get them started, though, and hope I can finish up some of them while I’m home)
• Finish up some holiday knitting (possibility status: par for course)
• Finish cleaning (by which I mean “start cleaning”) (possibility status: maybe not clean enough to pass the great-grandmother’s white glove test, but at least clean enough as to not be too embarrassing… maybe…)
• Do laundry so I have clean clothes to pack (possibility status: I’ll try… but mom does have a washer and dryer… heh…)
• Ship dyes to Huntsville so I can do some dyeing with mom over the holidays (possibility status: not sure if it’s worth it, with the cost of shipping and the fact that I won’t even be able to ship them til Monday, which means at best, they’ll arrive by Wednesday or Thursday… but we’ll see…)
• Pack for my trip (which has to happen on Monday, since I’ve got a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday late afternoon… Ugh)

On the plus side, I did finish my Christmas shopping this afternoon. Yes, I braved the mall. I was in a bit of an irritable mood when I first walked in, because people in the parking deck were acting like aggressive morons, and when I got in the mall, I got stuck walking behind a group of girls who took up the width of the aisle and were walking very, very slowly. When I did pass them finally, I nearly ran into people who were walking on the left side of the aisle. (C’mon people - we’re in America. We drive and walk on the right side - the left side is for passing only.) Ok, so I was being a bit of a bitchy grinch. It got better, though, in the food court, where I was grabbing a quick lunch. There was a group of Sunday school church kids who were on a scavenger hunt (according to their leader). Apparently one of their tasks was to go up to as many strangers as possible and wish them a Merry Christmas. I was selected as one of their targets. It was cute - this really shy little girl, who couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7, came up to me, eyes averted downward, and said in the cutest, mousiest little whisper of a voice, “Excuse me, ma’am, I don’t mean to interrupt your lunch, but I just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas.” She then started to turn away, but then whipped back around, looking me in the eyes this time with the biggest grin on her face and said a little louder, “oh yeah! And a Happy New Year, too!” And then she scurried back to her group. It was so cute, I couldn’t help but be in a better mood the rest of the afternoon.

So now I’m back home and continuing my procrastination process. I shouldn’t be, but… I am.

One of the things that’s been on my mind today is traditions. There was a post in one of the forums on Ravelry about Christmas traditions (link for those of you on Ravlery), and it was a lot of fun to read about all the little things people do to celebrate their holiday. We’ve got a lot of traditions in my family. Not just holiday traditions, but weekly traditions, even. I don’t know if the traditions are as important or meaningful to other members of my family as they are to me, but they’re all but vital to me. Take, for instance, our Saturday morning coffee. Saturday morning, after everyone’s dressed and the dogs have been walked, we go out for coffee. Sometimes we sit around and talk, sometimes we all just sit around and read or knit or whatever. But we always go out. I miss that now that I live away from home, and I always look forward to it when go home to visit. And growing up, Sunday morning was classical music. We’d all sit in the living room, reading the newspaper or whatever, and Dad would always have a record or CD going with some piece of classical music. Or weekend nights spent with my Dad - those were always special to me, though it wasn’t so much of a consistently-occuring thing. But when I’d come home from hanging out with friends, Mom would usually be asleep already, and Dad would be getting ready for bed. But before he went, we’d sit in the living room, sometimes sipping on Jack Daniels, and talk about stuff. Sometimes it was debating philosophy, religion, politics, or science, other times it was merely talking about our days, but it was always meaningful. I miss that. My Dad’s a quiet guy, and in general he’s not all that talkative. Our conversations on the phone tend to be pretty short (as opposed to those with my mom, which can go well over an hour sometimes). But when you get him in front of you at night with a little bit of Jack, he can talk your ear off. I’m very much looking forward to going home in a few days. :)

So, anyway, here are a few of our Christmas traditions:

• Putting up the tree: Now that my brother and I are both grown and living elsewhere, we wait to put up the Christmas tree until we’re both home for the holidays. We always play Christmas music when putting up the tree, and we reminisce about all the old ornaments and the stories behind them.
• Presents: My dad’s a goofball, and he started the tradition many, many years ago of putting wonky names in the “from” field on Christmas presents. There are always presents from “mom,” from “dad,” and from “Santa,” but there are always goofy ones, too, that are sort of little hints as to what the gift is. We all do this every year. For instance, one of the presents I’m giving my dad this year has “From: Calvin & Hobbes” on the tag. :)
• Christmas Eve: When we were kids, we were always allowed to open up one present Christmas Eve night. Now that we’re all adults, and there are fewer presents under the tree, we’ve given this up, but it’s one I’d like to continue when I have kids. Christmas Eve dinner is always a baked spiral ham and scalloped potatoes.
• Christmas Day: Christmas morning always starts with breakfast. Mom cooks - sometimes it’s blueberry pancakes, sometimes it’s muffins, sometimes bacon and eggs, sometimes cinnamon rolls - but she always cooks. And the rule goes that we can’t start opening presents until breakfast is over and the kitchen is clean. Then we gather in the livingroom, and one of us dons the Santa hat. The wearer of the Santa hat plays Santa, of course, and passes out the first round of gifts. We hand them out in sets - one for everyone - and then we go around the room, opening them one at a time. After those have been opened, Santa gets up and gets another set of gifts. Lather, rinse, repeat. Christmas dinner is always a roast beast, and a head of cauliflower garnished with baby carrots and cherry tomatoes drizzled with browned butter. Dessert is always peppermint ice cream with homemade hot fudge.
• Ornaments: I’ve also started the new tradition with my friends where I make them tree ornaments every year, labeled with the year and my name. Last year I knit them all little mini-sock ornaments, and this year I made them Korknisse ornaments. It’s always fun to see them up on their trees. :)

So what are your holiday traditions?