I’m so happy when our city does the right thing.

Having seen some of these myself this week, here’s a piece about sins of the workplace.

The first challenge I opened up in the new book said I should outline my most grave humiliation for you.  I tried REALLY hard, but hell, I update you people on the condition of my cervix at least twice a day, so how I can I consider anything truly humiliating?

(Completely unrelated: Delle said to me the other day, “You may think you’re embarrassed now with your body, but just wait until you give birth, when you have your whole family standing around, with your big ole cooter hangin’ out.”  A) why is my whole family in the birthing room (THEY WON’T BE) and B) why is my cooter big?)

So the second challenge I found is to describe funny family traditions you have.  They may be related to holidays (apparently, some people bake a cake every Christmas so people can sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus), or whatever.

Since I’m just starting our own family traditions, I’ll have to steal some that I’ve just picked up over the years.

The season starts with Halloween.  You HAVE to decorate for Halloween.  One, because it inspires you to clean the house (you can’t .. or shouldn’t.. decorate a dirty house), and then two, you’re ready for Christmas decorating.  I LOVE Halloween, and decorating for it is one of my favorite traditions.

Black Friday is also a tradition that was introduced to me at the Bitter House.  Waking up at the crack of dawn, making coffee in portable mugs, and hitting the mall with a game plan SOUNDS awful.  But OHMYGOD, the steals!  We would shop for a few hours, come home, nap, and then hit the Christmas Tree farm.  Cutting down our own tree is now a vital part of Christmas.  You feel like you own the tree when you put sweat into getting it into your house.  And the smell of live pine?  Mmmmm.

We open one present on Christmas Eve.  Like many other families, it’s usually one hand-picked present that will need to be opened early (such as an ornament for the tree or pjs to wear that night). 

And any time.. ANY time.. we have big news in our house, we allow ourselves to drive thru Krispie Kreme.  In the past year and a half, that’s the only times we’ve had donuts in our house: when we got married and when I told Bryan we were expecting. 

(Someone, give me some big news for tonight.  I sure could stand some glazed sugar.)

So what traditions does your family have?  Silly or special, share ‘em.  Go.