10 Things: Family Traditions

It is the tenth of the month, and that means, a big group of people share ten things... they can be ten of anything.  Shimelle started this fun project, and you can check out her post as well as many others here.

It seems that we have been on a streak of bad luck lately.  I've been trying to just get through one day at a time, so I've been a little scattered and not keeping up with my blogging.  Ugh.  I figured that this was a good opportunity to be grateful for the happy things we do have.  Growing up, my family did not have a whole lot of traditions, which I think is kind of weird.  We have an unusual family, so I guess it is just the way that it is. I've always been one that has craved traditions and always on the lookout for something new to try.  Here is a sample of our traditions...

10 Family Traditions:

1. Socks.  My daughter, Jessica, is notorious for losing her socks.  I am not sure how she does it, but she always runs out and ends up stealing mine.  I have a weird thing with socks, and if they look grungy, I don't want to wear them. Unfortunately, she always makes them look grungy, so she ends up with mine as well as hers (that are lost).  Every year, I end up buying her a package of socks for Christmas.  It is now a running joke and sometimes she gets them for her birthday as well.
2. School supplies.  We always shop for school supplies.  It doesn't matter if anyone is going to school or not.  We always stock up on cheap pens, pencils and composition books.  It is a family rule.  
3. Uncle Dan's.  We always have "Uncle Dan's" dip for the holidays; really it is made on any holiday.  It is just a garlic ranch dip packet that you find at the grocery store.  Nothing mind-blowingly special, but it is a must for us.  I'm not really sure how this started, but it is deeply entrenched in my family.  Tim is learning to accept and love this tradition... lol.  My grandma used to make the dip, and then my mom made it, and I even remember one holiday when I'd first moved out on my own, my mom was remarried and didn't make the dip.  It was horrible for all of us.  It seems silly, but that is one of *the only* traditions we really had, so it made a big difference to us when it was missed.
4. Thanksgiving Eve.  We do not cook dinner on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  We spend so much time and effort cooking on Thanksgiving (and usually prepping the day before), that we refuse to cook.  We eat out that night and save ourselves the hassle.  
5. Cooking two turkeys on Thanksgiving.  This tradition started right after our first Thanksgiving together when we only made one turkey.  For Thanksgiving and Christmas, we handle all of the shopping, cooking and cleaning and slave away for hours and hours in the kitchen, and then host both sides of the family.  The first Thanksgiving, we did all of that, and he ended up giving away all of the turkey, so we had no leftovers.  Seriously?  There *HAVE TO BE* leftovers.  Now it is two turkeys all of the time, and we always have leftovers.  :)
6. Getting a u-cut Christmas tree.  We almost always do this.  It is fun to go out slogging through the muck to try to find the perfect tree.  We usually have disagreements and/or debates about our selection, but in the end, almost every time, it is pretty unanimous.  
7. Annual ornaments.  When we were growing up, my mom bought us an ornament each year.  She did that so when we left home, we'd have our own ornaments to take.  My ex-stepdad threw my box away, but it was a great plan to begin.  I started doing it with Jessica, when she was a baby, and I still buy her one each year.  Sometimes I let her pick her own, and sometimes I don't.  Either way, she still gets one each year.  Now I plan to continue that tradition with Conan and Kennedy. 
8. Educational toys.  When I was growing up, we were pretty poor and didn't get a lot of toys.  My uncle always got us an educational toy.  I did the same for Jessica when she was little. I hope to continue that with the boys too.
9. Elf on the Shelf?  This is not something we've ever done, so this will be a new family tradition, but I'm totally excited to start! I've seen so many cute ideas for this, and I think it would be so much fun.  I don't know if he'll really understand it this year or if he is too young still, but we'll figure something out.
10. New Year's Eve.  We are not big party people.  Tim is kind of a homebody, so we don't go out or do anything fancy.  We always stay in, make homemade fettucine alfredo (chicken in mine, seafood in his) and veg in front of the tv because there is usually some marathon of a show we watch.  We don't really watch the countdown shows until the last couple of minutes.  We are sooo boring.  :D  

Now I'm inspired to create a scrapbook layout about traditions.  Have you done that before?  Tips?  Do you do them all at once or one at a time?  What traditions do you have?  Is there something you just can't go without or it wouldn't seem right?