Traditions

You all know I am quite the traditional little lady...

Psych.

I do however love the shit out of traditions especially when they happen around the holidays. They just give me the warm and fuzzies.

Between my family and friends I have quite a few that go down without fail every year. Most of them revolve around drinking, but not quite all.

Here are a few of my favorites:

-In college I lived with seven other girls. That's a shit ton of estrogen under one roof but I loved every minute of it. Seven of us are still the best of friends and ever since college we have been exchanging ornaments in lieu of regular gifts. It is a special reason to get together every year and also a lot cheaper than buying six gifts :)

-One Christmas eve many years ago, my dad called me in a panic because he had accidentally gotten hammered with his brother and neglected to buy my mom any gifts. Being the wonderful daughter I am, I rushed to his rescue and took him to the mall. He brought a flask and continued taking pulls in every department store. I accidentally got drunk while we were shopping. Instead of learning from his mistake we decided to go drunk shopping every year since. We don't do it on Christmas eve anymore but each year it involves less and less shopping and more and more drinking, and it's pretty great.

could I look like more of a creep? Also note my mom is flipping the bird.

-One of my newer traditions was started just last year. I guess it's not really that new because my mom and I have had an elf party for a few years now, but last year we bumped it up a few hours and started a Christmas Brunch. It is awesome because it incorporates day drinking and me being able to see a ton of my friends while I am home for the holidays. I invite everyone that I miss and my mom and I make a bunch of food. We drink mimosas and bloodys and have a holly jolly good time.

-Ok, so I will not lie, I am not a church goer. More power to ya if you are one, but this girl does not set foot in church with the exception of weddings, funerals, and on Christmas. I love going to church on Christmas because it makes my mom happy and I friggen love Christmas music.

-On Christmas eve ever since I moved out of state my family, Jose's family, and a few of our more hardcore friends have gone bar hopping during the day on Christmas eve. This tradition started as a spin off of my dad and my shopping shennanigans because my mom got jealous we were day drinking without her. So we started inviting her, but obviously we can't buy her gifts with her around so we had to move that tradition to a different day. We always lie to her and say we were "just shopping" but I am a pretty shitty liar, especially when I'm drunk so I think she is on to us.

-The last tradition I will mention is my friend's annual Cousin Eddy party. You know, like Cousin Eddy from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, yea that guy. So a very long time ago, before I was even his friend, my buddy Andrew (who loves Christmas more than anyone else on the planet) and his pals started having an annual party named the Cousin Eddy party. It started small, always at someone's house and all in attendance got dressed up in their craziest Christmas gear and drank like holiday fishes. A few years ago it got larger and a few of my girlfriends took over the annual planning, now it is always at a bar but it is still just as rowdy. And it's so much fun every year.

What is your favorite holiday tradition?