Family Christmas traditions get handed down from generation to generation. What I have found is that each new generation takes some of the old and then adds their own new tradition.

We added puzzles. Each year we have one table that becomes the puzzle table. Recent years have found us solving puzzles from Liberty Puzzles in Colorado. These puzzles are amazing! Wooden puzzles with whimsical pieces in different shapes that fit into the overall theme of the puzzle. This year, the one you see above, A Whimsical Map of San Diego, is our puzzle. Why in the world would someone from Texas want to solve a San Diego puzzle? Glad you asked. I have been going to San Diego, more specifically, La Jolla, since I was 5 years old. Next year will make 60 years. Wow, it amazing to even write that. My Grandparents had a house there and my parents took us there from that tender age. The changes over that timeframe have been drastic to say the least. How about no Interstate when we first went there. Yup, that’s a long time ago.

My wife brought her family tradition of sausage cheese bread. Oh my, it is awesome! Cheesy, bready, sausage goodness on Christmas morning. Mind you, I pay for it for a month trying to work off the extra calories, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. She always makes two of them. One usually gets demolished on Christmas morning or the next day. The other can sometimes make it all the way to New Year’s Day, depending on how many family members are home.

My mom always made toffee. Talk about buttery, chocolatey goodness. This is it! The weather has to be just right to get the toffee to setup correctly. Standing over the stove with a candy thermometer, waiting for the right temperature, then pouring it out and smoothing it out to just the right thickness. Not too thick and not too thin. Then adding chocolate chips to the hot toffee and spreading it out. Chopped pecans are next. Then the hard part. Waiting for it to harden in the fridge. Break it up, put it in tins for friends and eat my fair share. It is heaven! One of the best parts is using the small broken pieces of toffee, chocolate and nuts to top ice cream with. As if ice cream alone wasn’t good enough.

Then there is the cheese ball. Cheddar, blue cheese, cream cheese blended into the perfect mixture and then formed into a ball. Did I mention that the cream cheese had horseradish blended into it and then tops the ball? Or the paprika and chives on top. The only thing missing are the crackers to enjoy this. Oh look! There are some Bremner wafers! How did you know?

Did you make cookies and decorate them for Santa? Better get to it! Sunday night will be here before you know it. We have a special Santa plate for them. You might have one too.

The stockings are all hung by the chimney with care but that won’t be the case Christmas morning when they will have been laid safely on the ground because those little hooks won’t hold them up once there are filled. I remember getting fruit and nuts in my stocking. Now we tend to put chocolate and small gifts in them. It’s always fun to take a break from opening gifts and go see what is in mine.

My kids are all old enough to drink but I still make them wait at the top of the stairs so I can video them coming down stairs. Some traditions are too old to stop. There will be little munchkins soon enough to video. Won’t it be fun to show them their parents coming down on Christmas morning?

Does anyone else find that when the crowd is older that Christmas morning starts a lot later and a lot more relaxed> Okay, I’m not that relaxed because I want to get down to business so the break for something to eat can be a little troublesome for me. What traditional breakfast items do you have? We have started getting Kringles and someone always sends us a coffee cake. Are we really stopping to eat?

These are just a few of our traditions and I know you have plenty to share too. Let me know what they are and we may have to add them to our list.

Merry Christmas everyone!