It's a Family Tradition

Kids grow so fast and mine are no exception. Over the year I have tried to work in many traditions that they can carry on when they have their own family.

My parents never really had any traditions that I can think of at the moment. I take that back, they tried to have a few. We would open all the presents from our parents on Christmas Eve. Then Santa would come and we would have our big presents that morning. But our Santa did not wrap our presents. So one year, I informed my parents that I did not like it that way. I wanted to only open presents on Christmas morning and Santa had to wrap the presents and if he did not, my parents needed too. For some reason, they listened. Eventually I allowed every one to open one present Christmas Eve. Not sure why the took orders from a small child, but atlas they let me run the show when it came to Christmas. I am destined to be a CEO one day.

I know most people are surprised, but I am just as bossy in my thirties.....shocking I know. 

Here is a list of traditions as of 2010:

Secret Santa
This is our favorite tradition because it was inspired by my limited budget. Every year on Thanksgiving, we throw all our names in hat. We choose a person to be our Secret Santa. Then on the Saturday before Christmas, we go out as a family and buy our person a present. That present is opened on Christmas Eve. One of the benefits to this is the fact that we do not have go nuts buying each person a present from each person. I am all for simple. It is a fun night, that usually ends with us having dinner at the end of the night. I generally end up knowing who each person has because no one can keep a secret. Joey loves this tradition and adheres to it except the secret part.

This year we added a twist, we put a theme behind the present. So some has a sports theme or an "As Seen on TV" theme. So we will see how it goes this year. It could be a diaster.

Fondue before Santa
I hate to cook and I am generally bad at it for the most part. So on Christmas Eve, I do not have to make a mess cooking dinner,instead we have fondue. I get a dark beer and some blocks of cheese, and every one eats fondue. The kids love it but it never fails that we spend about ten minutes trying to fish out the bread Joey loses in the cheese. The best part, easy clean up.

Pajamas for Everyone
The boys are not a fan of this one, but every year Taylor and I buy everyone one jammies. We go get coffee and head to JCPenny. She picks out my jammies and I pick out hers. Here is another present I let the everyone open on Christmas Evee. I do this for two reasons, one it encourages the boys to wear pajamas and two they are dressed for pictures in the morning. It is really fun to just have daughter time. I would like to say this is an original idea, but I totally stole this idea from my old boss, Sandee at Arredondo Farms. I totally told her that I stole the idea.

A Christmas Story
It is just does not feel like Christmas Eve in the Rupp's house until we hear those bells ring and see the Red Rider BB Gun in the window. The music comes on and that voice starts off the monologue about how little Ralphie wants to get his Red Rider for Christmas. When his mother tells him that he will shoot his eye out, it is officially Christmas in our house. It is our subsitute for snow. Christmas Story plays over and over throughout the night and all is right with the world.

Those are the basic tradtions we have, we add to them every year. This year Joey and I went out to buy a stocking for everyone. I am pretty sure that will turn into our own little tradition.

Well time to make the bread, so I am off. From my family to yours, I hope every one has a safe, happy holiday and a super merry Christmas.

The Plastic Fork: A Logan Classic

There are some things your kids do that you never will let go much less let them forget. Not to mention, there is a good chance I might still be mad.   I was telling this story in public the other day in a public place and people in the room started laughing. So I knew I must put this online and share it with the world.

I believe there is a moment in every parent life when they wonders if perhaps someone dropped your child on their head and did not tell you.

That moment for me came when Logan was in 4th grade.

I exaggerated a bit in my last blog, I do not hate all school functions. At Glen Springs Elementary, they did a fundraiser an annual fundraiser for the Safety Patrol DC trip. They had a school yard sale and parents could buy a table for 5 bucks and sale their own items. This was a highly successful fundraiser. It was easy to get parents to participation. I was one of those parents who was happy to buy a table.

I packed up some useless stuff that was collecting dust and made my oldest son accompany me to the yard sale. The day was pretty successful and towards  the end of the morning I let Logan play with one of his classmates. I thought.....what trouble could this child get into on school premises. That was not the brightest thought I have ever had.

After about 30 minutes, Ms. Haile(why is all assistant principal named Ms Haile, I bet there is some statistic that supports it) came out of the school with my son who was looking incredibly guilty.

This child which I carried in my body for nine months, kiss his boo boos, held while he cried, and fed noodle soup when he was sick, had managed to get in trouble for one of the dumbest things ever in the universe.

Logan was caught in the teachers' snack room trying to break in the snack machine with a plastic fork. That is right you read right, a plastic fork. I am not creative enough to make this up.

My son, who up until that moment, I never questioned his intelligence got suspended in the 4th grade for trying to break into a snack machine with a plastic fork.

Now to make this story even funnier, I just asked this teenager of mine if it was a fork or a knife because I was not entirely sure if it was a fork.  He walked into the living room and said, "Do you want to know the truth, " I was not sure at this point, "it was both."

Fortunately he was not a alone. Somewhere in Florida, Logan's accomplice possibly has to hear his mom tell people the story about the day her son tried to break in a snack machine with this weird Logan kid.