Family Traditions

It's been a weekend for strolling down memory lane.  At Church on Sunday the boys found out they would be Who's in Whoville! They are so excited to get to bring in their Ukulele and Keyboard (Thanks Nanna- we have finally found a place to use these!) and come into the play making NOISE, NOISE, NOISE, NOISE!

Oh, come on! Tell me you don't know the story of How the Grinch Stole Christmas by heart also?
Were we the only family who put on a puppet show every year at Christmas? What? We were? Oh, well let me fill you in.

It seems that some where along the line in my Big Fat American Family we stumbled into a tradition of putting on a puppet show every year at the family Christmas party.  It comes as no surprise to me now that I have two children of my own when I think that there where at most times 20 children running a muck through someones house.

The idea I think sprang from my Uncle Chris who's the self proclaimed "Wild and Crazy Guy!" and my mother the former teacher.  (and total follower you can talk her into anything)  They soon had all 20 of us scrambling through the house looking for puppets, stuffed animals, sleds, props, and of course -Noisemakers.  We would then all crouch behind a bar and act out the story while Uncle Chris or Aunt Barbe narrated and all the other adults watched (and drank I think).

Now I know as my family reads this they are already giggling, maybe even belly laughing as they recall some of these "plays".  This was not a one time thing, this became a production on the grandest scale.  Every family contributing to the puppets and props as it grew large enough for it's own dedicated plastic Christmas tub .  We had an actual Grinch doll, a Ms. Piggy puppet for Cindy Lou Who (which was the funniest because it was a HUGE puppet for that supposedly tiny character), and we had some sort of brown animal puppet with twigs tied to it's head for Max.

The noisemakers where the best part and as you can imagine 20 children when told to "make a lot of noise" can bring the house the down.  That we did.  I don't know what it must have been like from the audience, because even though I did move on by age 12 and give up my space behind the bar to younger cousins, let's face it I was a teenager.  I was looking at it through the judgemental hormonal selfish eyes of a teen.

I can't wait to sit in the audience in a few weeks and watch my boys come traipsing into church making NOISE, NOISE, NOISE, NOISE.  It will just be hard not to critique the director's performance, because nothing will ever take the place of those years in the basement crouched behind the bar.