Tradition 1 - Socks. Hubs steals my socks. My white gym socks that is. To the point that I have no more. Let's ignore the fact that I didn't notice until I started to visit the gym again. Yes, I went on hiatus. A very long hiatus. But that isn't the point here. Day eight, warm & toasty, brought hubs the gift of socks. He has 16 new pairs of socks, so there is no reason for him to steal mine anymore. This is a tradition that I didn't even know that we had until I started to write this post. I always give him socks during his advent calendar. Why? Because he always needs them. This year, we both needed them. That is what happens when your husband steals your socks.
Tradition 3 - Gingerbread House. Hubs and I are competitive people. Christmas season isn't excluded from this spirit as our tradition of competing gingerbread houses takes center stage. We always decorate our own side of the house and whoever decorates it the 'best' wins. The prize is nothing more than the self pride of winning. This year, I thought I would switch it up and throw out a variation. Day ten, gingerbread hunt, was an alternative to building. This alternate was a hunt for gingerbread houses in the Arts District (if you live in the area and are interested, research it here). However, hubs wanted to stick to building. Then he threw in his own variation - he wanted to bake rather than buying a kit.
As he said that, I immediately panicked. Little did he know that day eleven was holiday treats meaning we would be baking cookies for the Packer victory (yup, I'm optimistic - and now I know I can tell the future! 13-0 - GO PACK GO!). With that, I clued him in and we decided to combine the two days. We bought some candy to decorate each respective home and got to baking.
As you can see, the icing didn't necessarily want to hold the gingerbread in place. My house of shambles didn't even make it to a photos. What you see here is what is left of hubs masterpiece. I might add, this is a friendly competition between the two of us that we do every year. Since hubs made 'stained glass windows' with sugar and his actually stood much longer then mine, he did win this year. I say by default, but he'd argue he would have won no matter what.This is all we have left of the gingerbread cookies. They are tasty - we snacked on them throughout the Packer victory on Sunday afternoon.
What are your holiday traditions? Do you ever change them up?