Talley Family Hulapalooza

Traditions are very important in my family. Today, the day after Thanksgiving, is known as the Talley Family Hulapalooza. We bring out all the Christmas decorations and decorate the house and yard. I love to have lights outside, especially if it's snowing--makes my house look all magical.

We used to cut down our own tree, but after the beetles and the drought attacked most of the pinion trees in the area some years back, we couldn't bring ourselves to cut down a tree that survived against such odds. We have a lovely fake tree, but somehow, the smell of a live one is missing. I keep trying different air freshners to try to capture that Christmas tree smell, but so far I've failed. We do go out and cut a few branches off trees so we can have a little of that fragrance.

During our years of cutting down trees, our favorite tradition was to drive inside the garage with the tree still on top of the Suburban, wedging the tree between the van and the garage door. Every year we'd remind ourselves, even as we drove down the driveway not to go inside the garage, and yet, we'd still manage to forget until we heard the crunch of the tree trying to go under the raised garage door.

Every year, though, we still watch Christmas Vacation. Every time I see that chipmunk on  the back of Chevy Chase I roar in laughter. I love Aunt Bethany and the Jell-O with cat food, the fried cat under the chair, and Eddie's dickie under his polyester suit. The whole group is nuts, from Eddie to the in-laws and they make me laugh.

We've also added Elf  to our tradition and now we can all quote from it. My kids even add syrup to their spaghetti--gross. We love this movie and have fun watching it each year.

Most of all, I love the Hulapalooza because we laugh and have so much fun together as a family. It's even more perfect if we have a snow fall and sit inside, next to the fire, watching the flakes pass by the window as we're sipping hot choclate.

Yep, this is a great time of year.