new family, new traditions?

around this time of the year of every year, i start thinking & anticipating for christmas. i know i know, it’s still so very far away. we’ve barely gone past raya & deepavali yet. but i’m impatient. maybe this anticipation is triggered by seeing other people preparing for their own festivities. religion aside, festive feelings are festive feelings. the excitement, the anticipation. the warm feelings of spending an important occassion with loved ones.

this year will be my first year celebrating christmas as a married woman. i wonder what sort of traditions the husband & i will have for ourselves. obviously he’ll want a bit of his own & vice versa.

his traditions
- decorate home with christmas decorations
- set up nativity set / crib (i dont hv this)
- put up christmas tree & place wrapped presents underneath
- attend mass on christmas eve night
- serve a meal of beef stew & bread at home after mass on christmas eve (i dont hv this)
- serve fruit cake & home made wine for guests (i dont hv this)
- leave for a 2 to 3-day holiday with his entire extended family (about 30pax) on christmas day (i dont hv this)
- they don’t really have a set time / day to open presents

my traditions
- travel back to my childhood home in sabah few days before christmas eve
- decorate home & garden with fairy lights & christmas decorations
- put up christmas tree & place wrapped presents underneath
- attend mass on christmas eve night
- head on to a hotel / fancy restaurant for a nuclear family dinner
- head home in time for midnight, sit in the living room in front of the christmas tree, wish everyone merry christmas & exchange gifts
- hold a christmas open house or visit relatives for the remainder of the season

not that much different yeah? so i guess it shouldn’t be too much of an issue… & we’ve agreed to alternate between spending christmas with his family & with my family every year. but i think i’ll want to also add in the option of spending christmas in our own home too.

2007 - the husband’s family (usually means traveling some place with his aunts, uncles & cousins too)
2008 - my family (usually means going back to sabah)
2009 - in our home (here in kl)
2010 - the husband’s family
2011 - my family
2012 - in our home
and so on & so forth…

why the 3rd option (of spending christmas in our own home)? well, when we have children, i’d want my kids to be able to have the same nostalgic memories i still have about spending christmas with my nuclear family as well. so i guess it’s a good balance no? its certainly a fair one to alternate our christmas celebrations this way --so neither side of the in-laws feel slighted. of course on those christmases which we plan to spend in our own home, either side of the in-laws are more than welcome to spend christmas with us if they choose to.

i remember when i was much much younger, my sisters who are 7 & 6 years older to moi respectively (old farts) used to bake butter cookies & pineapple tarts & shortbread cookies & chocolate chip cookies & the house would smell larvely. then ah, i used to go into my mum’s room, put on a cassette (yes yes, not a cd) of christmas carols & sing at the top of my voice in the dark. sing till i was hoarse. sing till someone screamed at me to shut the hell up. hihihi…

of course there were the christmas decorations. one year, my parents got a set of these tree decorations of santa clauses with sacks on their backs. like a real sack which can be opened up. of course its small lah. but enough to put in maybe 2-3 candies inside. so anyhow, that year, we placed gula-gula susu (with the blue & white wrappers) in these mini sacks. you know the sweets that basically taste like chewy condensed milk. needless to say, the ants had a very merry christmas themselves that year. also during christmas, we’ll sometimes get pretty shiny christmas crackers & boy did i love those.

i love my trips down memory lane & i want my kids to have the same thing. not necessarily an exact replica of my own experiences but i want them to have their own memories of spending christmas in their childhood home as they grow.

anyways, i’m already thinking on how to decorate our home for christmas. at the moment, although the apartment is far from spartan, it’s still not very personally homely as yet. i want my home to look cozy & warm. gotta work on that now.