The first tradition is one that not to many people have heard of, except for anyone with German heritage. I participated in an ornament exchange this year, and the ornament that my elf really wanted was the pickle ornament. I was very excited that someone else knew about this tradition and wanted to partake.
Here’s one version of the “pickle legend” from a website that sells ornaments: “A very old Christmas eve tradition in Germany was to hide a pickle [ornament] deep in the branches of the family Christmas Tree. The parents hung the pickle last after all the other ornaments were in place. In the morning they knew the most observant child would receive an extra gift from St. Nicholas. The first adult who finds the pickle traditionally gets good luck for the whole year.” This Christmas pickle story, with a few minor variations, can be found all over the Web, in printed ads, and inside the ornament package. It says that Germans hang a pickle-shaped glass ornament on the Christmas tree hidden away so it’s difficult to find. The first child to find it on Christmas morning gets a special treat or an extra present.
Here is a picture of the pickle ornament that hangs on my parents' Christmas tree.
Every year on December 24th, my father's side of the family gets together to celebrate my cousin Christina's birthday and Noche Buena. We play board games, drink heavily, and pig out on roasted pig, rice and beans, yucca, salad, and birthday cake. This year, I tried making my very first flan for dessert. Flan is one of my favorites and I have no clue how I went this long without trying to make one. The recipe will follow in the next post. The "cousins" consist of myself, Christina, Amy and Monica. We were inseparable growing up, and although we don't get to see each other too often anymore, we know we will be together on December 24th and we will have to take our "cousin" picture. Here is this years'.
We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house so that we could all open presents together in the morning. Charles came along with us for the festivities. Normally we would go visit Ollie's family in the afternoon, but they went to North Carolina to celebrate a very white Christmas with a few feet of snow.
We don't have too much space in our house but we did do a little bit of decorating. We had to make sure Charles' first Christmas was a special one!
Our First Christmas ornament, given to us during the ornament exchange. Thanks Gladys!
Our stockings hung off the audio pier... can you guess whose is whose? The one with the "A" belongs to Charles. Doesn't make much sense, I know.
The Mr. and Mrs!
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