On the most hilarious annual fight....

My dad's handmade Christmas village.

As pretty much everyone in my life is aware, I am absolutely bonkers about Christmas. I love the lights and the smells and the sounds. I even kind of like the cold weather, but only very slightly. Why can't there be snow on the ground and the air still be 65*F?

Part of what I love so much is the tradition of it all. There are so many things that I grew up doing that have sort of become second nature when it comes to Christmas. And like with other things in my life, it's hard to choose a favorite tradition, but there is one that I love because it's so funny.

The yearly fight over Christmas Soup.

My dad makes this amazing spicy potato soup at Christmastime every year. It's one of the best soups I think he's ever made. We call it our Christmas soup because it's got red and green bell pepper in it. But that's where the fight begins. See, he never makes the soup during the rest of the year. Only at Christmastime. There's a huge debate every year over when, exactly, we should eat the soup. Some of us believe it's on Christmas afternoon, for lunch (my dad and sister are in this camp) and some of us insist that it's for Christmas Eve dinner, before watching Muppet Christmas Carol and heading to midnight mass (my brother, mom, and I are in this camp and are clearly correct).

"Why the hell would we have such a huge lunch on Christmas Day when we're about to eat a massive dinner at 4pm?" I ask every year.

"Because 'dinner' should be at 6pm!" my dad retorts.

"Wrong! Christmas dinner is at 4pm! And I'm tired of having to wait 500 hours to open presents! We should just get to come downstairs and tear into the tree! None of this fancy-breakfast-tea nonsense! I want presents!" ....that, ladies and gentlemen, is my mother. Every. Single. Year.

So the debate rages on despite the fact that I have categorical proof that Christmas Eve Soup is made and served on *gasp* Christmas Eve. I even have non-ReadClan members that can attest to Christmas Eve Soup being, in fact, a Christmas Eve tradition. Those people have probably been party to the fight before.

So while it may seem strange that a fight is one of my favorite Christmas traditions, it is true. I love that fight. It usually results in all of us laughing hysterically, even if my dad does end up storming out of the kitchen at some point (we think that's done in jest, but it's hard to know). My family has never been a family that fights during holidays. Thanksgiving and Christmas are two of my favorite days of the year, simply because I often get to spend it with my family...a group of people that, despite the craziness and differences and annoyances, gets along remarkably well most of the time. We dig each other and part of that comes from these ridiculous traditions that have seeped into the deep recesses of our family and come out at just the right moments...

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