When we got married, I thought my holiday celebrations couldn't get any stranger. Pirogis, beet soup, bacala, peas and sauerkraut, pizzelles, Tombola... and most sacrilegious of all... opening presents on Christmas Eve. These were the traditions I was introduced to when joining MH's family. What happened to laying around in pjs all day, watching "It's a Wonderful Life," playing Trivial Pursuit, eating shrimp and cocktail sauce followed by a traditional Thanksgiving feast on Christmas Day?Over the past 10 years or so, we've introduced a few other unconventional activities from parsnips in Prague with a bunch of Brits, to unheated German vans in the mountains of Austria, and rainy car-tours of tacky Christmas light displays, to name a few. But this year, we have topped all oddball holiday activities. First there was the Christmas candy preparation from atop the birthing ball*. As if that wasn't odd enough...
This afternoon The Boy and Papa carved our Christmas pumpkin (left over from Halloween). If you thought The Boy was confused by the smock and hat combo, to top it all off, we traipsed him outside in 40 degree weather (note the ice on the patio in the background), cut open a frozen pumpkin, and tried to tempt him to stick his hands in it. He preferred using a spoon, and there was a moment when he considered eating the pumpkin pulp. Instead he decided to "keen up" by putting all of the seeds and goop back in the pumpkin as Papa attempted to scrape it out. Perhaps we've introduced the pumpkin-carving a bit too early. Maybe next year!
* Note on the "birthing ball incident." I have been having some abdominal pain/pressure due to the position of the baby and find it uncomfortable to sit anywhere but on the ball. It is a little low to use at the kitchen table, so while I was smashing up candy canes for peppermint bark, MH suggested that I should put "it" on top of the chair so I could get more leverage. Horrified, I scolded him, "Are you kidding me? I'll fall and crack my head open." It took about three-and-a-half seconds before I realized that MH wanted me to put my candy operation on the chair, not the birthing ball. Can you imagine me on the ball on top of the chair? Our next new holiday tradition would have been an emergency room visit!
