Second Christmas

My friends and I just celebrated our 6th annual second Christmas this past weekend. That's right, in March. Recent grads, low man on the totem pole, strapped for cash and with almost no vacation days in the pocket... We've all been there. Around the holiday rush, it's hard to get a vacation approved. And when everyone else has kids and families and expensive travel plans, it seems kind of rude to try and snag the vaunted Christmas Holiday Vacation Days.

So instead we choose a day some other time in the year and dub it "Second Christmas." Then we migrate up to the house of choice (One of us has a nice place in the mountains!) and spend a weekend goofing off, having fun, hiking, and catching up. There are elf hats. There are badly-wrapped Christmas presents, and random outbursts of songs from odd sources and dorky dancing. And there's tons of food. There were red-velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting who were convicted on the charge of deliciousness, and the vote was unanimous in favor of cupcake capital punishment. Bacon was snackrificed, and a tasty hand-telope was fed to a wild mountain cat (followed shortly thereafter by an application of Neosporin and Band-aids.) 

Coincidentally, the list of people who are not allowed to go grocery shopping together without supervision seems to be steadily growing.

It's always fun, always random, and a time-honored tradition that I hope to see continue long into the future. To me, friends are more valuable than treasure. So no matter how crazy life gets, I'll still make time for Second Christmas.

And, as an added bonus, it's much cheaper to buy Christmas gifts after Christmas. ;)

Quote of the weekend:
"Aw, how cute! It's rending the flesh from my hand. Wait. It's rending the flesh from my hand. AHHHHHH!"
(encounters with adorable wild mountain kitten)

Do you have any traditions that you've kept going between you and your friends? What kinds?