I Knew Instantly That There Would Be Another Stuffed Reindeer in the Room...

...because it happens every year about this time.

No, we don't collect penguins, or snowflakes or even angels or shepherds or sheep, but at some point in our history as a family (maybe it was the year Dairy Queen gave beany bag reindeer with kids meals) we started collecting four-footed, prancing, pawing, caribou. Of course, personalities being the way they are, my husband, Turtle, contracted an obsession for them. So, every year the red, plastic vat in the attic comes bumping and thumping its way down dusty stairs and my living room is infested with silly, sleigh-pullers. . . and every year, another one pokes its silly little snout out from between the others. It's a tradition I tolerate, at best. The latest one is particularly goofy looking. (He's the last one in the video)

Oh well, at least I don't have a fat, jolly, white-bearded man in a red suit booming loudly in the darkness behind them. Oh wait...I do. Now maybe that's why he...hmmm.



Our Sunday Scribblings Prompt was "I Knew Instantly"

Speaking of Traditions

I've been thinking about Christmas traditions...because, well...it's that time of the year again. I suppose our most lasting family tradition was one started by my father and mother when I was about ten years old. Every Christmas Eve we went caroling in the nursing homes and the hospitals--just our family, and, as we all got older, some of the sons-in-law and grandchildren.

Dad played the accordion and walked behind us, and we sang as we walked up and down the halls. Occasionally, a family member would invite us into the room to sing for a loved one, and there were always people at the nursing homes who would sing along with the familiar carols. It was, and still is, good for us to think about others, and it was a fine thing to do together; it didn't take very long, but brought a bright few moments into the lives of those too ill or too forgotten to go home for Christmas Day.

Thanks, Dad and Mom, for making this a family tradition.
It has lasted over forty years.