Christmas means family traditions and homemade food

The next time you see me, I will not look like this head shot you see before you. My face might be a little rounder due to holiday eating.

I am more of a Halloween person, gorging myself on lemon and orange flavored Tootsie Rolls when in season.

This time of year, I love homemade rolls, cheesecake and pineapple ham for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The best part of Christmas is definitely my mother’s cooking. I realize everybody says that, but my mom makes everything from scratch, including the cheesecake. A lot of effort goes into her meals. She must be embarrassed that I can’t cook. I’ve tried to make her cheesecake many times but it never turns out the same.

Aside from the food, there is also the family.

Most people only see their extended family on the holidays, if they are lucky, at least that is what I am assuming. But I get to see them all the time. We are a pretty close-knit family for which I am grateful.

During Christmas, we always participate in a white elephant gift exchange. About 80 percent of us bring cool gifts and the rest bring something really lame. Two years ago, my mom brought the lame gifts. While the Boutilier family made off with Quiznos gift cards, four other family members got stinky candles and ugly picture frames collected from the previous year.

Another tradition involves “90210,” the original version of the television show.

This sounds weird, I know. But for the past 15 or 20 years, someone gets the “90210” puzzle featuring a picture of the bad-boy character Dylan. This puzzle has never been opened and is certainly a relic in the family.

It is always wrapped in a larger box to disguise it. Then the unsuspecting, hopeful gift-getter opens the present, and to their dismay, Dylan is staring back at them. Each year, someone else gets the puzzle.

As family legend has it, the gift was originally given to my cousin for her birthday. She was embarrassed her mother would pick this present out for her and so she re-gifted it to someone else at Christmas.

Does anyone else out there have strange family traditions or weird holiday stories they care to share?

Candice Boutilier is the Columbia Basin Herald assistant editor. Her coworkers suspect her family traditions may also involve dressing pets in costumes. There is evidence of an Easter costume for a dog and rumors of costume antlers being used during the Christmas weekend.