Holiday traditions Archives - Food, Booze, & Baggage

Sometimes you can’t make it home for the holidays, or maybe you just don’t want to. Either way there is no reason to feel down. Take a page from little Kevin McCallister and go wild, enjoy your freedom. Start your own traditions, have something that makes it feel like the holidays for you, gets you in the spirit, or makes you forget it’s even Christmas. This may be something traditional or nontraditional. Here are a few tips to get you thinking:

Get away from the routine. Go on a trip. I think some people get sad when they can’t make it home but going on a special trip can help with homesickness. Make sure it is somewhere that will have places open on Christmas and you make plans accordingly. You just need to plan ahead. If you can’t get too far, consider going to the beach or mountains in your area. Renting a cabin or house on the beach can be a great change of scenery.

Get your couch time in. Plan a few days snuggled down with your honey (or just a friend), Netflix, and some good snacks. Make staying in an event. Plan what movies to watch so you don’t get into the whole, what do you want to watch conversation. Do a marathon (Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings), catch up on a series you might have missed, or do a movie theme (Christmas movies, Halloween, a certain director or actor). Plan plenty of snacks, and a crockpot meal or take-out.

Establish traditions that are uniquely your own or ones that reminds you of home. P and I like to cook a special meal if we are home on Christmas day. We do something involved and comforting, like short ribs, risotto, or ragu. Every year we have a special bottle of beer on Christmas Eve and watch The Christmas Story. You could have a day baking cookies or making fudge, make decorating your tree an event, or take a drive to see the lights. Do something you can both enjoy.

Do something not holiday related. Plan a picnic, indoors or out. Have a summer theme night with summer food and activities. Do something outside of your box. Go on a hike, take a class together, or anything that is not something you do on a regular basis. It can be big or small. When was the last time you did a puzzle or had a gaming challenge?

However you choose to celebrate, I wish you a…..

I’ll be taking next week off, but will be back the following week with lots of plans and goals for the new year.

What are your holiday plans?

As we are entering the holiday season, I thought I would address a question I was asked recently at a party: “What do DINKs do for the Holidays?”. Response: “We of course are taking our yacht to the Caribbean” (said in a very snotty voice). Well, I hate to disappoint you all, but we do pretty much what everyone else does — our own thing.

But since the question was posed, here are some things you will and will not find DINKs doing this Holiday Season:

WE ARE NOT:

1. Staying up until 3am putting together Barbie’s playhouse

2. Eating half a plate of cookies with milk at midnight (or maybe we are but for different reasons)

3. Mailing anything to the North Pole

3. Showing up on the local news fist-fighting over this year’s hot toy (is it still Elmo?)

4. Destroying the house and blaming it on the elf

5. Explaining to anyone how Santa can still find you even if you are traveling

WE ARE:

1. Buying presents and wrapping them for our pets

2. Sleeping past noon on Christmas because we can, we drank too much the night before, or… oh, because we can!

3. Eating at IHOP (or Waffle House) because we forgot to plan accordingly for Christmas day closures

4. Blaming the messy house and lack of decorations on the elf (I don’t have a tree because the elf stole it, all those empty wine glasses..that elf…damn him)

5. Buying really loud annoying toys for gifts

Of course, I cannot answer this question for the entire DINK-dome population because like everyone else we do what we do, and you do what you do. Some people are super-into the holidays and go all out like National Lampoons. I on the other hand could take it or leave it. We have Christmas decorations that take up several boxes in the bedroom that I refer to as “the garage”, but these decorations have not been taken out of the box for the last three years. I guess we approach the holidays a bit differently because we don’t have to feel guilty for not following tradition or establishing a tradition for our children. For example, this year we agreed to no presents; instead we are buying a new mattress as our gift to each other…very exciting, right?! Next year we might do a trip…we might put up a tree…we might do a TV marathon…who knows. Now, before you feel too sorry for us and think we establish no traditions, let me share the few we have done each year:

We watch “The Christmas Story” — at least twice so the second time I can say the lines along with it

I read this section from David Sedaris’s book out loud…usually laughing so hard it defeats the whole purpose of reading out loud (now that I know there is this YouTube reading available maybe P will be spared my incoherent reading[unlikely])
We buy a nice bottle of something alcoholic, and open it Christmas Eve-this one may have been established to deal with the other two 🙂

So, cheers to you and your’s this Holiday season, however you decide to celebrate!

Home Alone: Celebrating The Holidays For Two

DINKs on Holiday