Tidbit Thursday

::tap, tap:: Is this thing on? It is? Ok, thanks! ::clears throat:: Bear with me readers, this is my (Leila) first blog post for for Jennifer as a full-time member of her Creative Team. ::does happy dance:: So it's Thursday, right? Well, no—it's Tidbit Thursday! And I'm here to share a tidbit with you! Shall we begin? Yes? OK good!

Last week, while chatting with a friend via Yahoo! Instant Messenger, this very blog post and my lack of ideas for it, came up. Well, said friend let me bounce a few ideas off of her. I'm sure many of them were duds, but she's too nice to say so. Then, I suggested that perhaps I could discuss holiday traditions with you all. And we had a winner! So that's what I'm going to do—discuss holiday traditions. While thinking on the topic, I realized that my family has a decided lack of traditions, and I've decided to change that. That said, I will share with you our existing traditions.

HalloWiikend. This one is new for us from last year. Normally we take our ghoul and goblin to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat activity where fun is had, food is eaten, trunks are tricked out and kids get buzzed on candy. Last year, I was sick. (BOO HISS!) The hubs and I had to come up with something to appease the monst—I mean boys, fast. I mentioned the Wii that we'd purchased a few weeks prior as a family Christmas present, and HalloWiikend was born. This year, to honor the tradition, we'll be buying one family game to add to our collection, and we'll have a HalloWiikend party. Each of the boys will be allowed to have one friend over for pizza and Wii.

Christmas in November! This one tends to blend in with HalloWiikend simply due to timing. I love Christmas ornaments. So do the boys. So, we've started going to Hallmark each year on November 1 to pick out a new ornament for the tree. Last year, the hubs got a Star Trek communicator, Debug picked a penguin ornament, and JP selected a skateboarder. Me? I got this:



What can I say? I love to cook!

And that love of cooking brings me to our final holiday tradition. Normally we travel for Christmas. The last two years we've stayed home due to circumstances beyond our control and a serious lack of desire to deal with holiday travel nightmares. Now, even when we travel, I like to make a really nice breakfast for Christmas morning. Last year I made Croissant French Toast, the recipe is at Epicurious.com. Darn site won't allow me to direct link! The year prior, I made Christmas Breakfast Casserole. The family loves seeing what I'm going to make, and they really love eating the end result!

So share with me some of your family holiday traditions. What do you and your loved ones do now? What can you make into a tradition for the future? I'd love to hear!