Tradition, tradition! Tradition!
I love traditions. I love the idea of doing something only once a year to make it special, or making the day special by doing certain things on it, no matter if it goes with the holiday standards or not. Having days in the calendar that are different from the other days make life worth living, in my opinion. If every day is the same then what do we have to look forward to? Besides the zombie apocalypse, I mean.
I didn’t grow up with a lot of traditions. I found out that there wasn’t a Santa Claus at the ripe old age of four, and it was all downhill from there. I’ve also mentioned before that besides angel food cake, which has yet to be veganized, there aren’t really any childhood recipes I have fond memories of. So as an adult, I have to start my own traditions from scratch and take inspiration from my friends and the family i’ve created.
A few years ago, Brian and I decided to watch Die Hard on Christmas Eve on a whim. It was a great night, we opened our presents and his sister and I painted our nails and we had a nice dinner. Last year, we watched Gremlins. This year, we switched our present opening to Christmas afternoon (everyone goes to grandma’s on Christmas morning) so on the eve, Brian and I watched Batman Returns and ate pancakes because they’re easy. Not-Christmasy Christmas movies and pancakes are definitely something I want to keep up, because Christmas is a big source of stress for me and it’s nice to have something purposely lazy to look forward to.
A couple of years ago, I blogged about Amy Deluxe/Supreme, which is macaroni and cheese with wing sauce (wings optional, must have Dr. Pepper to make it authentic). Somehow, it turned into my traditional NYE meal, I think last year I even went out and got a gas station Dr. Pepper (which is the best kind, we agreed) and tweeted a picture to Amy. It’s just something that I really like but don’t make very often because Brian doesn’t like wing sauce because he is a monster.
Amy died suddenly this summer, from a pulmonary embolism. We only knew each other through the internet, but she was a cool fucking lady. We met as moderators on the PPK forums, and chatted on AIM before facebook made instant messaging obsolete. Amy was the kind of person who would always tell you what you needed to hear, not what you wanted. If you said something stupid, she would tell you. If you had a problem, she would listen. She was a true friend to those who were lucky to know her, and an amazing teacher to her students. She was just overall an awesome human being, and her passing was truly a loss to anyone who crossed her path. I miss her funny tweets, her dog pictures, and excitedly talking about nail polish on the PPK. Thanks Amy, for being awesome and for giving me this tasty tradition to look forward to every year.
posted: 13 December 31
under: Uncategorized
