When my brother and his wife were first married, Julene asked Henry what his childhood Christmases were like. He talked about all the traditions, including getting breakfast in bed, peanuts in his stockings, putting up Christmas lists, etc. and didn't give the conversation a second thought.
When Christmas day came around, Julene surprised Henry with breakfast in bed. Henry complained, "Oatmeal! I hate oatmeal!" Julene was shocked because this was his family tradition. "No," Henry replied, "Our mom forced us to eat oatmeal so that we wouldn't make ourselves sick eating candy all day. We all despise oatmeal" (in fact, Rena and I used to throw the oatmeal out the window, Stillwell flushed it down the toilet and Spence spooned it into his sock drawer every year).
When Henry looked in his stocking, it was filled with peanuts in the shell. "Peanuts! What am I supposed to do with peanuts?" Again, Julene was confused. "But you told me you always got peanuts in your stockings." Henry answered, "Yeah, they were just used as filler so they wouldn't have to fill them with so many toys and candy" (I'm positive those same peanuts were recycled year after year).
Then Henry looked under the tree and it was filled with presents for him. Julene had given him EVERYTHING on his list. She didn't understand that our family put up lists every year, but we never expected to get the things on them -- maybe just one or two if we were lucky. Then he felt REALLY bad because he had only given Julene one or two things from her list, and she was probably expecting ALL of them!
Traditions are what make holidays great, but we should understand the meaning behind them and understand when to change them to fit our situations. I'm sure that Henry and Julene have many wonderful and new traditions they enjoy at Christmas, and I'm sure that they still laugh at their first one.
4 comments:
Well it sounds like Henry and Julene stuck it out regardless of their rough beginning. Good for them!
I must say the title of your post reminds me of my first roommate during my freshman year of college, who made a production out of her weekly Saturday shower. (I shouldn't mention, but will anyway, that her major was in agricultural sciences, which required her to be birthing sheep and such--by the end of the week, she was smelling quite ripe). I have a picture forever imprinted in my mind of her standing naked in front of the bathroom mirror, clapping and singing out "Tradition! Tradition!" Unfortunately, try as I might, there was just no way to avoid the performance. From then on, I made sure I had "plans" on Saturdays.
Okay, I thought I had some odd roommates.
Lois, your post should be a magazine article.
I still think we should have formed the oatmeal into pieces of vanilla nut fudge
AM'N2DEEP -- that roommate sounds hysterical! Too funny. I'll think of her every time I see "Fiddler on the Roof."
GEO -- yes, my roommates all sound great now.
I hope I have all the details right. I'll have to have Henry and Julene write it. Too funny.
RENA -- that would've been awesome! But then, the dogs would've starved.
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