HTT - Holiday Edition

We're baaaack - sick, but back. Missing the wicked sights in Rhode Island, but back. Not ready to blog about the trip or share pics quite yet, but back.

And even though we've only been back for 12 hours, I'm already thinking about decorating for the holidays. OK, I lied, I put up some decorations the day before we left so that I'd have a little holiday cheer awaiting us. A better idea would have been to put away the dishes, but I've never been one to properly prioritize.

Anyway, all the holiday thinking has led me to a hotter issue - How to blend family traditions? Because while Mr. Dub and I come from pretty similar families, our traditions vary a bit. His family has Thanksgiving Part II on Christmas Eve and leftovers on Christmas day, while mine opts for a warm soup and rolls on Christmas Eve with a big buffet (sometimes traditional sometimes Mexican) on Christmas day. And his fam reenacts the nativity story, complete with costumes, while mine always read stories and then watched a movie. (Typically "A Christmas Story," sometimes "Elf," and once "Close Encounters of the Third Kind.")

And the list of minor differences goes on and on ... though we both opened one present on Christmas Eve so we've got that going for us.

So how do we decide what to eat on Christmas Eve or Christmas day? (We're leaning towards letting everyone pick their favorite food and enjoying a random smorgasbord on Christmas Eve.) And how does a more tradition diverse couple ever comprise?

Also, when is the appropriate time to start having Christmas as a family rather than traveling to visit family or sharing the day with them? 'Cause we're planning to mooch for a few more years, both out of homesickness and sheer moochy-moochness, but at some point our family needs to start its own traditions and make its own memories.

But what do ch'alls think?

How do you create new holiday traditions for your family out of your respective pasts?


Oh, and my bro-in-law also wants us to address the "new" trend of saying, "X-mas" in lieu of Christmas, although I informed him its not so much a new trend as a very 80s abbreviation. But do discuss if so inclined.