Tradition! Tradition!

When I first started this post (3 days ago) I began by saying that we don’t have many Christmas traditions in our family, or at least not as many as I’d like. After a few minutes of writing though, I realized that we do have more than I realized.

Last year we started what we hope will be a tradition of going to Dante's Down the Hatch a few days before Christmas. (for you non Atlantians, Dante’s Down the Hatch is a very unique fondue restaurant. Since it would take a whole post by it’self to describe, you can check out their website if you are interested, http://www.dantesdownthehatch.com/ .) We went last year and we did it this year too. (Does 2 years in a row make it a tradition?)

Another tradition that we've been able to stick to for about 3 or 4 years now is that we have Krispy Kreme dough nuts for Christmas morning breakfast. Both Paul and I grew up with the traditional Christmas morning breakfast casserole severed in our houses. While we both like that, the kids don't and there's no sense in me making a big ole' casserole that only 2 of us will eat and then have to throw most of it out. So, we do dough nuts. Everyone likes doughnuts, right? And then I don't have to worry about making breakfast on Christmas morning.

One tradition that is lacking in our family is any sort of Christmas light viewing. I've tried year after year to get to get this to work but alas it has not. It might if my husband were more of a willing participant but he is not. He hates going to any lights shows. There are several near us. There's the Lake Lanier Magical Night of Lights. We did that one year. I thought it was good. The kids really liked it. I can't remember why my hus did not. Then there is the Callaway Gardens light show (can't remember what it is called exactly). That one you can choose to drive through or ride the trolley tram thing. I thought it would be fun/different to do the trolley. Well, it was kinda chilly. We had coats and blankets but there was still a bit of complaining. So we haven't done that one again.

Then there is the Life College light deal -ly- o. There was a significant line of cars to get even to the starting line of that one. The hus hates to wait. Patience is not on his long list of character traits. We did wait though and made it all the way through, but I knew when I first saw the line that that was going to be the last time we did that show.

And this year, I've tried twice now to get the family down to Centennial Olympic Park in down town Atlanta to let the kids run around and look at the lights there. On my first attempt, we ate dinner first and when we walked outside, Paul had no sooner gotten the words, "It looks like it's about to start pouring" before it actually started pouring. So that was a no go.

Then after our Dante's Down the Hatch tradition, we (I) tried again. This time it was getting late, parking was not super easy , lots of one way streets ( turning down some going the WRONG way, getting yelled at by a cop who fortunately was on foot), and a mom and dad who were just ready to go home, all made that trip a bust too. I'm not done yet. We WILL go see those lights. THIS year.  I don't care if Christmas is already over!! (actually I'm pretty sure we won't do it this year either, but when I first started this post I was so determined.  Now, not so much but I had to stay with the theme of determination.)

We do have a few other Christmas traditions that we manage to keep from year to year. But now it’s all over anyway. I’ll probably have to get in one more Christmas post before it’s all said and done so bare with me.