Part 2 of my Thanksgiving day weekend!
My Thanksgiving day weekend really kicked off on Saturday, when I attended my first ever Quinceanera. Two of my friends' stepdaughters were turning 15 and I was invited to attend. I have another friend who is part Hispanic but did not have a Quinceanera. I must say it was very beautiful and the girls, who are fraternal twins, looked absolutely gorgeous! Their gowns were a very beautiful navy blue and they looked like princesses. There was a lot of dancing and it was very educational to me to learn about this rite of passage in the Hispanic/Latino culture (I remember My Super Sweet 16 on MTV and the follow up My Super Sweet Quinceanera but have never seen anything in person as elaborate as what was portrayed in the shows). I am all about learning different things so my mind can grow and experience the meaning behind certain things. I may not have understood what certain things meant in the beginning (and my Spanish is a little rusty so I only understood a few words as some of the events through the evening had dialog in Spanish), but now I do. It was an experience nonetheless!
Typically after Thanksgiving, our household tradition is to start decorating for Christmas. It usually takes us, no lie, 2-3 days to decorate for Christmas. We usually start Thanksgiving and did a little decorating, but because of the other events afterwards, we really started Saturday. We have two trees, a live and an artificial tree. My husband always grew up with a live tree and prefers them to artificial. I have always had an artificial tree, and my artificial tree has always rotated (sans a few years when we didn't have a rotating stand). Call me lazy, but I like the rotating stand....easier to put ornaments on and it "showcases" my ornaments. The live tree, after looking for the perfect one for about 30 minutes, wasn't much of a problem. My artificial tree however, was the biggest problem. I have a white Christmas tree that I have had for about over 20 years. It was a replacement to an old, aluminum tree with a color base that rotated. The white Christmas tree was loosing it's "needles", the branches bent, slightly yellowed due to age, dirt, cigarette smoke (from my dad's house) and finally, a broken plastic piece causing one branch to be completely useless. I decided initially to wait until after Christmas to get a new one....I'll give this one one more go round! I put my colored lights around the tree. Strand one, good to go. Strand 2, only half of it worked. Now since my tree is white, I have to find colored lights (because it looks so pretty) with a white wire....not very easy! Well, I figured if I got new lights, may as well look for a new tree to put them on! So I found a new, white Christmas tree. Great! Time to put it in my rotating stand! Only one problem....it didn't fit. After some slight modification, we finally managed to get the new tree into the rotating stand! Success! Well.....maybe not. We went to turn on the stand and it would not turn the tree.
I try not to be upset over the smallest of things, but not having a rotating stand actually did upset me a little. I have always had one (for the most part of my life) and it's one of those childhood memories that reminds me of the good times. So, we had already visited Target to get new lights, back out we went to get a new, heavier duty, rotating tree stand! It was a pain that day with everything breaking or not working, but at the end of the day (and a little under $200 after), I got a new tree, lights and rotating stand...that works! Now the remaining tradition of watching Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special and National Lampoon's Christmas vacation is next on the list!
What are some Christmas decorating traditions you have?
What are some Christmas or holiday decorating disasters or mishaps have you had?
Have you ever been to a celebration such as a Quinceanera that was a first for you?
@missy @rambo
