These beauties were taking at the Queens Mall at the Santa HQ - https://santa-hq.com/
One of mine helped me create a new one. We all used to pile in the car to see the Big Beautiful Christmas house on Pelham Parkway. Yes the one Mariah Carey shot a Christmas video at. So this house is not what it used to be or it is just not cool. I still find it amazing but my kids are done with it after one glance. So I built on this by taking a look around the neighborhood to see the other houses. There are so many people that take just as much time to decorate got to show them love too right. Maybe this year we can even add to this and choose another night and go to the city to see all the store windows done up for the holidays. Just get me some Starbucks and I am good to go. I like to dream when we have our big house on the hill, lol, on what decorations I will have.
Another one from my childhood is going to my grandma's (Abuela's) house every year for Thanksgiving. Most of the family had been keeping this tradition but slowly over the years it went from getting together for all the holidays at Abuela's to then just Thanksgiving. Now just a few of us show up on turkey day. She always like to make a bring spread, classic PR grandma loves to feed her family. We all try to chip in and bring dishes or drinks but no one confirms until the last minute and we all show up when we want so kinda hard to eat together. I guess the most important part is being there since my Abeulo is no longer with us (RIP) Abuela definitely needs company.
Since these tradition have grown and changed over the years as many things do, I am left with the questions why do we continue to follow traditions? Is it that we are comfortable doing them or do we all just feel forced to do things that we do not necessary like or even want to do.
As a newer mom, I want to instill Love, Pride and Joy in my critters lives not Regret, Anger and Hate. So even if we are going to continue some traditions we will still do them our way. For example, we will continue to go to abuela's house but not at the time one or two family members decide we will got at the time that works best for us. As the tradition goes we would all try to arrive early to help Abeula cook. I am talking like 9am she would never let us help and we really dont need to have turkey at that time so we would all just be there feeling uncomfortable because of the heat in the apt or the latest family drama. So this year we left the BX at 2pm and arrived to Manhattan at 3pm, traffic was still impossible so got to find a better time or route for next year, lol. We still had a early dinner but it was dinner not breakfast, lol.
I hope this helped you to think outside the box and do things that work for you and your family. I hate to say it but LIFE IS SHORT. So if there is anything you are doing that maybe you hate or puts you in a mood try to put "your" spin on it. If it means not showing up until most of the family leave because you want to avoid drama and confrontation do it. If it means eating ham and not turkey because you hate the smell of turkey then do it. The happier you feel the happier the holidays will be.
After all of that thinking and thinking I have decided to change my blogger name to RebelMom618.
I have and will be doing things my way and I invite you along for the journey. I hope you will update the link and continue to follow my journey.
Happy Holidays to all of you.
Happy Holidays to you! Here is to new traditions, like 9A play dates!!! Okay, maybe we can pick a better time but here is to creating new traditions to honor the old!
ReplyDeleteI love this because sometimes the majority of the stress around the holidays stems from trying to make what "we are supposed to do" happen. I love that the Cruz' are changing the holidays to fit them and to relieve stress for their RebelMom so that their memories can be those of laughter and all the different family members that they spent time with over the holidays instead of memories where they felt forced to do certain things (this is NOT to say that holidays when we were younger did not ROCK but times have changed and we have the make the present positive so it can spill into our future).
ReplyDelete<3 Mini <3