December 4 - My Favorite Holiday Traditions (part 1)

December 4 - Tell a story about your favorite holiday memory

New Year and Christmas (as we celebrate it on January 6) are my all-time absolute favorite holidays no matter how old I am. 

Now when I am over 30, Christmas to me is about slowing down to spend some quality time with my family and close friends, lots of pajama days with traditional dishes and sweets, watching favorite TV programs, more buying than receiving gifts. 

But when I was younger, it was about spending more time with friends than family and sleepovers were my most favorite part about it.

But in reality, it is now that I realize that Christmastime is so special because of my childhood. Now when I'm away from home in another country and I recall our family gatherings, Christmas and New Year traditions are my favorite holiday memories. 

. Cooking and baking and decorating

. seeing lots of relatives and neighbors

.  the festive table all set for a few days

. some special dishes and sweets made only at  

  Christmastime

. sleeping on the couch in front of the TV 

. snow to make it more magical (if  lucky)

In order to fight the holiday blues away from family, I am trying my best to still keep these traditions while adopting some new traditions from the country I currently live in.

What about you? What are your favorite holiday memories? Do you have any holiday traditions?

If you wanna play along, join the 31-Day Blog Challenge 
hosted by Linda Jean from Witte's World Blog and share on your blog.