Saturday, December 23, 2006

Christmas Traditions ... New and Old


This Christmas, now that Matthew understands a bit about the concept of Christmas, we have been thinking a lot about traditions. What is important to me, what is important to Mike and what we want to share with Matthew.
This is our fifth Christmas as a married couple. So, I'm not sure if that would be long enough to have that many traditions. We both come from traditions. Our combined traditions run the gammut from watching White Christmas (put on the music to "Sisters" and my sister and I will perform the routine flawlessly) to sipping rum flavoured egg nog (this is Mike's family's tradition).
But what do we have?
Well, we have our annual Christmas Eve McDonald's breakfast which Matt was thrilled to partake in this year. We have our annual trip to Starbucks arriving just after Strabucks closes. And we have established quite nicely that Christmas Day we spend at Mike's Family's home while Boxing Day is spent at my family's. These are things we do. And we love.
But there's one other thing that seems to happen to us.
Our annual Christmas Calamity.
One year I had the flu. I know we've all had it - but I am the Christmas person of the family. On Christmas Eve (with an 8 month old baby and very needy dog) I spent the morning puking and then while shopping for Mike's stocking threw up all over Shopper's Drug Mart (Thank God Mike was there, it was a store used to ill people, etc. etc. Mike ended up buying and wrapping his own stocking stuffers and still claims it was his best stocking ever!!)
Another year I had a serious feminine issue which I refuse to blog about.
Another year I was pregnant and just a little out of control due to the fact that nothing fit.
This year's Christmas calamity? We have lost power to half of our house. No. Not kidding. There are no lights in the bathrooms, hallway or dining room. Our kitchen appliances work, but we are forced to cook in the dark. We know a fuse has been blown, but ever time we replace the fuses they just blow again (yes, everything is turned off). My dad came over to help but couldn't fix it. Mike's dad has no idea. We're clueless. We're also not calling an emergency electrician ause it's just too pricey.
So, we are sitting in the candlelight and hoping that this is the only calamity that will befall us. It could be much worse. Our whole house could be out of power. We could have lights but no appliances. My very thoughtful relatives could have decided not to give us a gigantic apple 3-wick candle as a house warming gift.
Life is good. It's Christmas. But, if anyone knows a cheap electrician in Burlington, please let me know!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry, couldn't help but laugh!! It's always something isn't it? But from the looks of the picture, the Christmas tree lights are working so that's good right?
Hope you guys had a wonderful morning.
Merry Christmas!
Love
Gin

Anonymous said...

Don't know an electrician, but I can offer a suggestion: if you're blowing the same size fuse over and over, you might try stepping up the current rating a bit (say 2-3A... for example, if all the fuses you're blowing are 10A, try a 12A instead). Of course, if you don't have spares in the house, this won't help.

Unknown said...

Gosh, every family sure does have their stories of Christmas disasters! I'm sorry to hear that they keep happening to you, that sucks!
One year, I remember me waking up with the flu at around 1am, my sister waking up at around 3, and my Mom waking up at 5, both ends ALL DAY! We cancelled Christmas and had it the next day, all still feeling pooped, no pun intended!