Holiday Traditions

Let me be the first to say that yes, it is early for a post about the holiday season, but as an (almost) first-time mom, I am especially excited about Christmas this year!

One of the things that excites me most about starting a family is that we are now able to determine what holiday traditions we want to establish. Some of our ideas are "borrowed" from Sean's side of the family and others come from mine, but we're especially looking forward to the traditions that we will create ourselves.

Some of the traditions that have already begun are as follows:

• Cutting down our own Christmas tree (borrowed from Sean's family)

When I was growing up, we always had artificial Christmas trees because my mom is allergic to pine trees and having them in the house always aggravated her asthma. As a child, this never bothered me because our trees always looked beautiful when they were covered in lights and ornaments! But when Sean & I celebrated our first Christmas as a "live-in" couple in 2009, he indicated that he wanted to cut down our tree because it was something he always enjoyed doing as a child. Since that year, we've made our way to various Christmas tree farms to pick out our tree and cut it down ourselves. 

So far, each year has been memorable for one reason or another. Christmas 2009 was our first tree together so it felt incredibly special for that reason alone! 

Christmas 2010 was a little crazier, because we picked out a tree but it ended up being WAYYY too tiny for our apartment and I had a mini-holiday-meltdown because of it (not one of my finer moments), so we went to a grocery store at the last minute and purchased a slightly bigger (and much more expensive) tree for our apartment.

Christmas 2011 was a really fun Christmas tree year, because we found an amazing tree farm called Lockwood's (not far from our apartment in Rhode Island) that had hot cocoa, baked goodies, and the nicest people imaginable. 

Christmas 2012, as it turned out, was even better than 2011 because we had already moved back to Rochester and were very happy to literally be "home for the holidays." We also found an even better Chrismas tree farm than the year before - a place nearby called Stokoe Farms. 

This year, we plan on going back to Stokoe Farms for our Christmas tree and will be bringing our little baby girl in towe. This will undoubtedly be the most special Christmas tree yet, because it will be our baby's first!

• Reading "The Night Before Christmas" on, well, the night before Christmas! (borrowed from my family)

When I was a child, I have such special memories of sitting by our fireplace and reading "The Night Before Christmas." Although I've heard that story countless times in my life, it still holds the magic of the season for me, and likely always will. Although we don't have a fireplace in our new house, I know that we can still make this tradition as special for our little girl as it was for me.

• Making "Christmas Casserole" for breakfast on Christmas morning (borrowed from my family)

Every Christmas Eve, my mom and I would prepare our Christmas Casserole and would then pop it in the oven on Christmas morning so that it would bake (and smell delicious!) while we opened gifts. I only ever eat this dish on Christmas, so to me it literally tastes like holiday happiness! Since Sean & I have been vegetarian, we've modified the recipe slightly and it's still as delicious as ever. If you're interested, here's the recipe:

 1 pound ground pork sausage
 1 teaspoon mustard powder
 1/2 teaspoon salt
 4 eggs, beaten
 2 cups milk
 6 slices white bread, toasted and cut into cubes
 8 ounces mild Cheddar cheese, shredded
Crumble sausage into a medium skillet. Cook over medium heat until evenly brown; drain.
In a medium bowl, mix together mustard powder, salt, eggs and milk. Add the sausage, bread cubes, and cheese, and stir to coat evenly. Pour into a greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Cover, and chill in the refrigerator for 8 hours, or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Cover, and bake 45 to 60 minutes. Uncover, and reduce temperature to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Bake for an additional 30 minutes, or until set.

There are still many, many ideas that we have for traditions that we plan on having with our family, so stay tune for a future post!