Well, another Christmas is upon us. No white Christmas for us, though. At one point last week, someone “Couldn’t rule out the possibility of some stray flurries” when in fact, it started raining yesterday morning and went clear through the day…then the evening…then overnight. Too bad it didn’t freeze overnight, or all of the puddles and ponds in our backyard would have made for some sweet ice skating this morning.

You know, for many people, Christmas is a time of tradition. As CU and I sit here…after opening the gifts, and cleaning up the mess, and watching Cookie’s tiny head nearly explode from all the overstimulation, and drinking the mimosas…I think about some of my favorite Christmas traditions…

Tradition #1 - All participants in morning gift-opening must have some sort of beverage prepared before the gift opening can begin. This one goes back to when I was little. The most agonizing part was that although it took about ten seconds to pour me a glass of juice, Mom’s circa-1978 Mr. Coffee Brew-o-matic 9000, I swear, took half an hour to brew a pot of coffee. No “pause ‘n pour” features back then…oh no…back then you had to freaking wait until the whole pot was made before you could pour anything. Now though, I can crank out a cup of coffee very quickly, and CU’s glass of water is a virtual no-brainer…but no unwrapping may occur before we have our beverages. This is sacred.

Tradition #2 - Leaving milk and cookies for Santa. I haven’t done this since I left home, but I do remember the pivotal year when I started leaving wine and cheese for Santa instead of more inocuous snacks. Had I know then what I know now though, I never would have encouraged drinking & Santa-ing.

Tradition #3 - CU and I purchasing the same thing for each other. I don’t know if this is a by-product of eight Christmases together, or that we’re just a lot alike…but three years ago, we bought Ove-Gloves for each other. To enhance the fun, my mother-in-law bought one for us, as well. Last year, 8,000 miles apart, we bought each other a copy of Sideways on DVD and this year…we both got iPod Shuffles. Technically, Mom bought CU’s, but I was going to get him one, then offered it up to her as a perfect son-in-law gift idea. Can’t wait for next year…maybe we’ll buy his ‘n hers 72-inch plasma TVs.

Tradition #4 - Christmas Eve dinner at The Melting Pot. CU and I have done this every year we’ve been together, except for the first one, as he went back to North Carolina to visit his family. When Mom lived here, we took her with…and when CU was gone last year, I went with Ali (formerly of ladymac dot com) and her husband and kids. Yum-o. This naturally, lends itself to another unintentional holiday tradition, which is immediately changing clothes and showering after returning home, since every pore on our bodies and every fiber of our clothing smells like coq au vin cooking broth. Blech-o.

Tradition #5 - Ever since I was old enough to rot my teeth with sugar, Mom has gotten me one of those candy canes filled with M&M’s. When I was younger, it went into my stocking…and when I stopped opening a stocking at her house, she started packing it away cleverly with other gifts. This year, it came inside a sewing basket. Personally, I think all sewing baskets should now come with chocolate in addition to pins, needles, thread and scissors. I’ll add that to Snarkwife’s Holiday Shopping list for next year.

Awww…it’s all so warm and fuzzy…even by Snarkwife standards. Tradition is fun. Tradition is good. Fun is good.

As a postscript…remember that one package from my mom…the one Cookie kept scratching at? Turns out, it was pajamas for me. Cookie stuck her head into the empty box and rooted around for about thirty seconds. No matter what we told her, we’re pretty sure she was still convinced we’d hidden Grandma in there and were just not letting her out to be mean. Because, you know, we’re like that. We enjoy laughing at an aging blind poodle’s expense.

Merry Christmas, everyone!