Tag: holiday season

The Holiday Season & My Obsession with Tradition

Lauren12 Comments

When my sister’s boyfriend came to watch us cross the finish line of our half marathon, my mom warned him that “now that you’ve done this once, Lauren will consider it tradition and expect you to be at the finish line every year.”  Ha, I’ll be damned if that isn’t a frighteningly accurate summation of my life.

Look, I’m well aware that once I do something and love the outcome, I’m hell bent on repeating it year after year.  You know, to recreate the same level of predictable happiness that I attained the time before.  And there is no time that I’m more determined to be repetitive than during the holidays.  I can’t help it, it’s such a special time of the year and I’m deathly afraid of changing things up, for fear of disrupting my own vision of how things should be.  Plus the holidays totally cater to tradition, making it just that much easier to convince myself that things MUST be the same way they were last year.

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But the thing is, and I’m just sloooowly realizing it, is that things DON’T have to be the same to be good and changing things up just creates opportunity for NEW good experiences.  Take Thanksgiving for instance.  Every year, we run a Turkey Trot.  This year, we didn’t.  And can I tell you what a HUGE RELIEF it was to just have a calm relaxing morning at home, drinking coffee and watching the Macy’s Day Parade?  It’s like these holiday traditions are so ingrained in my head that I don’t even ask myself if I even really want to do them or not.

So even though I’m still hell bent on taking advantage of every single holiday moment, this year I’m really going to keep in mind that things do not need to be pre-determined.  Spur of the moment decisions are fun.  Changing it up is exciting.  And even if I end up missing some holiday tradition, there’s ALWAYS next year and the year after that and the year after that!

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Are you a creature of habit, especially this time of year?

Are there any holiday traditions you CAN’T go without?

December To Dos

LaurenLeave a comment

Okay, okay, I’m eight days late, but I’ve been busy decorating every empty space of our house with Christmas stuff (this house WILL BE a winter wonderland), watching Fitz & the Tantrums “get down” at the Boulder Theater (best entrance ever!) and eating soup (maybe two pots full was too much…), so this December To Do list is just coming now.

As much as I rag on winter, December really is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love the holiday season and all the coziness, glitz and family time that comes along with it.  And as a Type A routine-follower, I love the traditions that come with the holiday season.  This December, I’m definitely sticking to those traditions, but hoping to add in a few new things too 🙂

KBCO Studio C

Ah, the unofficial kick off to December!  Everything about this tradition (except the part where my mom claims it’s her last year to attend) makes my heart so happy.  They handed the CDs out at all 20 CO Whole Foods locations this year so we got fun samples while we waited in line, plus it was 36 degrees and I’ll totally take that over last year’s 0 degrees.  We stood in line behind a man who had all 25 (26 now!) CDs and used to get in line a 3 AM.  Wowza!

Get a new December look.

As in I’m having my hair cut and dyed today!  I want to give this whole long hair thing a chance, but we’re gonna need some layers or something because long hair is heavy!  And a new hair color is always a fun way to change things up.

Go to the Parade of Lights

We always plan on going to the parade but two years ago, we got stuck in traffic and missed it and last year we chickened out because it was freezing.  This year was pleasantly mild, and after getting to see the penguin balloon limbo under the traffic lights, Hannah, Josh, Joey and I walked ourselves to Machete where Joey proceeded to order a shark taco…

Go to a holiday show

I can always count on my mother-in-law for this one.  This year, she got us all tickets to Jersey Boys at the Buell and I cannot wait.  I love going to the theater and seeing everyone all dressed up in their holiday best, plus there’s dinner afterwards.  Yes!  Also, Joey has some sort of surprise show later in the month that I’m so so excited about.

Cookie Baking Sesh

Save for Jersey Boys, we have nothing planned next weekend, so I’m thinking a cookie baking day is in order.  My mom makes Cocoons every Christmas so I think I can blame thank her for the whole “It’s not Christmas without cookies” mentality I have.  I already told her I’d trade her half of whatever I make for half of her Cocoons.

Host Christmas Eve

Okay, I had really thought we’d do Thanksgiving at our house this year but after realizing that’d be a lot of people in a very small space, we stuck to the separate celebrations 😦  Christmas Eve however, should be a much smaller group, so it’s official, we’re hosting!  Joey doesn’t seem to want to obsess about the menu fifteen days out like I do though!

All the Christmas movies

We kicked off the Christmas movie season this weekend with some Christmas Vacation.  I’m usually not the biggest fan, but I felt like watching it for some reason.  Joey pulled Elf, The Holiday, Love Actually, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Home Alone, The Santa Clause and Scrooged out of the basement so I think we’re set for the rest of the month.

Read A Christmas Carol

Okay, yeah, I’m probably weird for wanting to read things like Wuthering Heights (which I finished last night) and Charles Dickens, but I’ve never read A Christmas Carol and thought it’d make for a fun December read.

Donate the clothes and books I’ve cleaned out recently

Pretty self-explanatory.  Let’s not get into that part where I’ve had a bag full of books I had to buy for college in the trunk of my car… FOR THREE YEARS.  I just recently cleared a few off my book shelf so I should probably take all of those to the library to donate.

Start a Christmas morning tradition with Joey.

Last year was the first year in our history as a couple that we didn’t have anything to do or anywhere to be.  It was oddly relaxing.  Instead, we lounged in our pajamas, made waffles and watched a movie.  I’m thinking this could be a new tradition for us to carry on 🙂

I’ll refrain from adding things like “get new glasses” or “dust my shelves” because that’s probably boring, but I really should do those things too…

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Recently:

Christmas Light Happiness / Fitz & the Tantrums in Boulder / Major Waddles Limbo / Parade of Lights / Shark Taco / Studio C with Mom / Post-Studio C Sustenance / Mistletoe / Nog!