Traditions may evolve but find way to survive

I’m happy to report that I did get a tree up in time for Christmas this year. I thought I had better lead with that sentence since I’ve had people stop and ask me if it indeed happened. I’m glad to know people read my column and that they care enough to respond to it.

I didn’t manage to get the normal size tree out of the attic, because I didn’t have room to put it up. I’m still dealing with moving my office home and finding a place for everything. It was extremely important for me to put something up since my sister had told me I could have her tree skirt as she needed to get one that fit her tree stand better. She also said she had a couple of ornaments for me.

One of the best things about my sister is that she’s happy letting me be me. The tree I managed to get up in time for Christmas was the miniature one we used to put up in the room when Mom and Dad lived at Homme Home. There are some people who might ridicule someone for putting up such a diminutive version of a tree when real-size items are on the way. Fortunately, my sister is not one of those people.

My sister knows that I can view the small tree as a great way to fully see the beautiful tree skirt she gave me. Even though the two ornaments overpower the tree, she knows I love them and at least for this year they will be the focal point of the decorations.

This concept of keeping traditions alive is something I try to embrace, but it’s measure of success is a bit fluid for me.

Christmas morning meant rice pudding in our house, a carryover from Dad’s youth. His mom would make it as a treat for the kids to eat before going out to milk the cows. There’s a Norwegian name for it, but hard to replicate without the goofy letters of their alphabet.

In a rare moment of planning ahead, I had rice, whole milk, sugar and cinnamon in my possession. As a new twist on an old tradition, I was going to substitute the traditional choice of raisins for the top of my creation with dried cranberry raisins. Sadly, the twist never happened.

Over the years I’ve learned to buy Halloween candy at the very last minute so that I don’t eat it all before the trick or treaters come knocking at my door. I can now apply that lesson learned to those tasty irresistible cranberry raisins.

I fully intended to have the rice pudding for my nephew, sister and brother-in-law on Christmas morning, but we were invited out for breakfast so I didn’t get to make it until the next day after they had gone home.

The recipe calls for a long cook time and paying a fair amount of attention to it. I thought I was so smart cooking it in my crockpot putting my own easy spin on tradition. You’re supposed to place the rice pudding in shallow bowls to cool. I chose to put mine in a large ceramic tart pan, and then realized I also needed a pie plate and finally a small bowl. I forgot how much the recipe made and now I had oodles of it taking up space in my refrigerator. Perhaps this tradition should be reconsidered.

As luck would have it a neighbor came knocking on my door saying her oven wasn’t working and could I bake something for her as they were having their Christmas celebration that day. I said absolutely, on the condition that she take my large tart pan full of rice pudding, which worked out well for her, since she was a little light in the sweets department.

My ability to be flexible with my holiday expectations helps to keep my Christmas relatively stress free. A Christmas tree to decorate, spending time with family and friends and Dad’s rice pudding are all great traditions that I do enjoy as long as I keep in mind that my traditions come with no hard and fast rules.