by Chrysa Smith

Around this time of year, you hear people talk about their grandma’s recipe, a family favorite or a time-honored tradition. And it got me to thinking about myself and my family. Exactly what are our traditions?

Sure, we do a roast, bake some cookies, but there’s no ‘specialty’ of the season. In fact, as goes my personality, I like to shake it up a bit—consciously not repeating the same dishes year-after-year. And sometimes, it goes against the family grain—‘rubbing’ some of them the wrong way.

Why don’t you make a turkey? A ham? Why don’t you bake those peanut butter cookies? Once again, I hear the familiar chorus in my head saying ‘Why do you always have to be different?’ And I have to think for a minute and say: I like to be challenged; to experiment—I want to try something new.

I don’t know about you, but when there’s something I enjoy–like cooking, and I see a new recipe, method, idea, I’m anxious to try it out. In fact, this morning–Christmas morning, I’ve got the oven going right this very minute with a recipe I just saw on the TODAY show. Sausage in puffed pastry. Smells good; we’ll see. Sometimes, I get tired of all the planning and just opt to spontaneously go for it. Sometimes works; sometimes doesn’t. But at least I try.

And trying is one of the time-honored ‘traditions’ that I do embrace—as part of the philosophy of this blog.  And it’s one of the things that MaryFran and I joke about: nobody can ever say that we never tried.

This holiday, I hope to keep trying new things—hope you do too. After all, it’s one of the ways that keep us young and out of granny panties.