Tradition

The holiday season brings about traditions for many families.  According to Google a tradition is “the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation.”  That is exactly what some of my favorite traditions are…passed on from my grandparents generation to my generation.

Every Christmas my family enjoy pizzelles.  When I was really little it was my grandparents who made this coveted Italian cookie.  I’m not sure how or why but my mom (number 5 of 7 children) got this tradition passed down to her.  For years my grandparents would come to our house with their pizzelle iron and teach my mom how to make them just right.  Of course, my siblings and I would be running around eating “the bad ones” and picking up some tips along the way too.

Slowly, this tradition was passed solely to my mom who recruited my sister and I for help.  Each year we gather to make pizzelles only days before Christmas, pausing during the chaos of the season for time together.  We talk to my grandparents in heaven each year asking for help when they are too soft or too burnt or getting stuck to the iron.  We reminisce about making them years ago altogether or the one time we made them not at Christmas time for a cousin’s wedding.  We make fun of my grandfather with his egg timer being an absolute perfectionist and driving us kids crazy.  Or the time he didn’t like our cheap extension cord and found a very heavy duty one to use that now lives with our pizzelle iron throughout the year.  You never know what other stories might arise too.  There is a lot of learning to be done around the table during pizzelle making time.

Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without this tradition being passed down from generation to generation.    What are some of your holiday traditions?