Family Traditions

Tomorrow is one of the "major" holidays for my family.
Thanksgiving.
My husband says that it's his favorite because it's all about the eating.
When we started our own families we, like most other families, had to figure out how to blend two sets of traditions.
In my family, the Thanksgiving cooking was shared between my Aunts and my Grama. We also dressed up. My husband's family takes a more casual approach. My mother in law does all the cooking. I have offered to help in the past. I do buy a chocolate ice cream pie since I'm not a fan of pumpkin pie. Blasphemy, right? His family also dresses casually, watches football and passes out in the living room. It's been a long time, but to the best of my recollection, my family played board games. I remember the adults playing Trivial Pursuit. We probably all just went outside and played.
Christmas was the hardest to figure out. My immediate family always had our own Christmas morning routine.
Brandon has been adamant about spending Christmas Eve with his family and waking up with them.  I liked it better as a kid waking up, getting my stocking and finding my "Santa gifts". Then later that day all the cousins came to Grama and Grampa's house. Extended family exchanged gifts and we had a big Christmas dinner.
Our stockings were left out empty at night, along with cookies for Santa.
In Brandon's family, stockings were handed out like gifts with all the other gifts.
Speaking of Santa gifts, ours were unwrapped. Bran said all his were wrapped.
Once again, we always dressed up. 
I think the only thing our Christmases had in common is the fact that we both left cookies and milk for Santa, and we got special new jammies. We did leave sugar for the reindeer. As time went on, we switched over to oats sprinkled out on the snow. I guess the reindeer were either diabetic or on a diet.
We started our own little tradition.
Cookies are made on Christmas Eve and left for Santa. We stay up till after midnight on Christmas Eve. and put out the kid's gifts. Then we each open a gift. It's always something that we bought for each other.
I am sure as the kids get older all the kinks will get worked out and we will have our OWN set of family traditions (that our kids will argue with their significant others about in the future.)