Guest Post: 16 New Year's Eve Traditions | Tragic Tales and Manicured Nails

I think that "JAZZED" is the best way to describe how I am feeling right now. Today I have the distinct privilege of introducing you to Caroline from Tragic Tales and Manicured Nails. She and I recently had the opportunity to connect for a consultation, and let me tell you, this woman is as brilliant as she is hilarious. Today she is taking over my blog to share some yearly New Year's Eve traditions (some intentional and some incidental). Can you relate with any of these?

Here's Caroline:

HELLO Avoiding Atrophy readers! Caroline here from Tragic Tales and Manicured Nails. I’m popping in to taking over my girl Christy’s space to share some New Years Eve traditions I have. Christy had asked me if I had any and, at first, I thought that I didn’t. Upon further reflection, I realized that I essentially do the same thing every NYE.

So, here I am outlining my 16 foolproof, consistent traditions that I follow each year. Please feel free to incorporate any of these into your yearly routine.

1. I set high expectations. 

I’m sorry, but you can’t tell me that you watched High School Musical and didn’t envision finding the Troy to your Gabriella at a ski resort on New Year’s Eve. We will sing karaoke at a professional-level only to exchange numbers (and photos stored to the number, of course) and later find ourselves at the same school only to FALL IN LOVE! I mean, these things HAPPEN, okay? I always go into the night with a minimum of 6 karaoke songs memorized for this very reason. Songs memorized must also vary in genre so I’m prepared for any type of singing partner. Country boy? Rapper? Alternative rock guy with long hair and questionable life decisions? I’m ready to harmonize.

2. I don’t have plans. 

More often than not, I forget it’s coming. It sneaks up on me like a tiger while I’m still catching my breath from Christmas. I mean, I’m currently still over-thinking things I did in 2010, so a-whole-nother year for me to accidentally ask non-pregnant women if they’re pregnant over produce in grocery stores is just NOT what I need right now.

3. I spend New Year’s Eve Eve looking for things to do on New Year’s Eve. 

I text my friends and they have no plans either, so we debate our options. Club? Too expensive. Party bus? Too cramped. Chipotle? Closes at 11. I’m usually visiting home for New Years so we don’t even have a house to go to that isn’t owned by a parent who ratted me out in high school for speeding through their neighborhood (I had places to be in high school. I mean, sometimes I had to go to Target and Walgreens in the same afternoon.) We settle on one of the parent’s basement where we will have access to a TV so we can watch the ball drop and cheers and make out and whatever.

4. I throw on anything and everything I own with sequins, regardless of the basement venue.

All shapes, sizes, quantity, color; I do not discriminate. I look incredible and will indeed blind people whenever I walk by a light. Beauty is pain, for everyone around me.

5. I purchase one bottle of champagne.

Sometimes two. Sometimes thirteen.

6. I arrive and scope out the situation. 

Obvious question that needs to be answered immediately: Who will be my New Year’s kiss? My options are slim because it seems like everyone already pre-decided their New Years kiss and has brought them along. Natasha brought her boyfriend, Jessica brought her current fling, and Makenzie brought her brother. Ugh.

7. We stare at each other. 

 Should we play a game? Let’s play a game.

8. 95% of the champagne is in my belly, King’s Cup is over, and I moved on to the part of the night where I tell everybody how much I love them. 

This is essential and cannot be skipped.

9. I check the clock to find that it’s 11:47pm. 

Midnight is approaching. I scramble. Does anyone feel like they’re about to break up!? I make a great rebound. I need to find someone to kiss and I need to do it fast.

10. I realize that this family has a cat. 

Beggars can’t be choosers. I approach the cat to make small talk before our big moment and their female dog comes out of nowhere and barks at me to get away from her NYE kiss. Seriously!? What a real bitch.

11. Ryan Seacrest tells me it’s time to start counting down.

12. I tell Ryan Seacrest to LAY OFF.

13. The girls start to dab their lip gloss. They guys start to pop in mints. 

They’re preparing. They know what’s coming. I do, too. I swiftly steal someone’s seat on the recliner as they stand up to kiss. They will fall in love; I will fall asleep. ABC Family has probably already turned into 700 Club which means it's way past my bedtime.

14. 7 seconds until midnight.

15. Anyone want to karaoke?

16. Midnight comes. 

It’s officially the New Year and I am kiss-less. Meanwhile, the dog and cat have already moved to the bedroom.

Once we clear this midnight hump, I realize that Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens ended up breaking up anyway. Also, I can’t sing. Also, there’s no one I actually wanted to kiss. Also, I’m wearing a sequin dress in a basement.

Seriously, why do we put so much pressure on ourselves on New Years? It is so silly and yet it happens every year. It’s like we are all programmed to believe that New Year’s Eve must be some extravagant night, so we spend too much on cover charges and spray twice as much perfume as usual. This year? I’m doing it differently. I’m changing my perspective. I’m switching it up. 2015 will be welcomed in sweat pants.

But yes, they will be sequined.

To read more from Caroline, be sure to check out Tragic Tales and Manicured Nails!

My Childhood Christmas Traditions

Back in my day, this was the pinnacle of Christmas fashion.

Growing up, I always felt like my family didn't really have any Christmas traditions. My friends always came back from the holiday break talking about how they had gathered with their extended families, sipped eggnog, and sang carols. My Christmas wasn't anything like that. Not at all. We didn't eat chocolates out of an advent calendar, put a mischievous elf on the shelf, meet up with distant relatives, or wear matching sweaters. Santa came, sure, but I didn't really view his visits as a holiday ritual. They were simply my right as a well-behaved child.

But looking back, I realize that even though we didn't engage in a lot of customary Christmas past times, we still had traditions. Oh, did we ever. Here are just a few of them:

1. Setting up our fake Christmas tree

Image via Balsam Hill

To my recollection, in the eighteen years that I lived under my parents' roof, we only owned two Christmas trees. When one was out of commission, we sprang for a fancier model, but they were both fake -- fake as all hell -- and they were both a pain in the ass to set up. We would store our tree in our attic, which was a place that, as a young child, I believed to be the home of a tiny, evil man in a derby hat (this is just one example of the kinds of terrifying, detailed stories my dad told me when I was a kid). I would cower, petrified, in a corner as my dad and sisters nearly broke their necks trying to take the tree down the ladder. My dad would set the whole thing up like a super hero and my sisters and I would be in charge of the decorating. I don't know where my mom was during all of this -- probably buying us tacos or something. Thanks, Mom.

2. Listening to Mannheim Steamroller

My dad always played Mannheim Steamroller while we decorated our tree, and to this day, it is the music of my nightmares. I genuinely believe that when one enters the gates of Hell, they will be greeted with a mashup of Mannheim Steamroller and Lowrider. There is just something about that synthesized sound that makes my ears cry, and that was the case even back then, but props to my dad for never giving in to my incessant complaining.

3. The Drive-Through Nativity

Image via Photo Pin

At my hometown church, we did a lot of weird things, but the Drive-Through Nativity was by far the weirdest (and my most favorite). It combined two of our nation's most beloved things: Jesus and the business model for the American fast food industry. My family would drive into the church parking lot and line up behind several other cars to watch the story of the birth of Jesus. We were handed a tape with a guided audio track, and we would drive slowly as we approached stations depicting scenes from the nativity. The best part: it was all live-action. That means actual humans from our church were playing these biblical characters...for hours. They were supposed to stay in character the whole time, but there was always some sleepy six-year-old sheep who was totally OVER IT or a shepherd who was eating a granola bar. My sister and I would laugh hysterically from the backseat at the awkwardness of it all while making up new narrations for the characters ("Hi, my name is King Herod. *fart sound*"). At the end, we were handed a plate of cookies for the road, and it certainly felt like we had earned them.

These traditions from my childhood were some of my most treasured, but they honestly don't even begin to scratch the surface. I can't leave out our traditional Christmas Eve meal (cold cuts and cheese served on a platter from HEB) or our ceremonial gift-opening tradition (hoarding all of our gifts in laundry baskets) or our traditional Christmas song and dance (i.e. complaining loudly to our parents about having to go to the Christmas Eve service at church....man, we were brats).

While my family's Christmas traditions were a bit on the unconventional side, I still completely treasure them -- so much so that I've actually been listening to Mannheim Steamroller the entire time while writing this post. Excuse me now while I drain the blood from my ears.

Does your family have any slightly eccentric holiday traditions?

Brooklyn O'Shoney Christmas Traditions + CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY

Daniel and I are celebrating our third married-Christmas, and while we are still new to this whole marriage thing, we're already starting to develop some lasting traditions. Some of them were carried over from our upbringings. Daniel's family especially has some great traditions when it comes to setting up their tree that we have adopted. Other Christmas traditions have just been bred organically, either by accident or by necessity. 

Either way, we're pretty proud of them. Here's our list so far:

1. The Christmas tree must be real, and it must be bigger than the tree which preceded it. 

I'm not sure how sustainable this tradition really is given how long we hope to be married, but so far it has proven true. Growing up, my family always had a fake tree that we would dangerously lug down from the attic. My dad would put it together and my sisters and I would fluff out the branches. Daniel's family, on the other hand, always ventured out to a Christmas tree farm to cut theirs down. 

The Brooklyn O'Shoneys (that's Daniel and I, by the way) have met somewhere in the middle in that we walk about 7 blocks to pick our Christmas tree out from whoever happens to be selling trees in our neighborhood. Daniel walks it back, and I stop at a bodega to buy a bottle of Sprite (did you know that your tree will last longer if you use Sprite to water it on the first day?). 

2. We must listen to Motown Christmas at some point while decorating the tree.

This tradition comes from Daniel's family, and I am honestly happy to oblige because my family would always listen to Mannheim Steamroller whilst setting up our tree. Motown Christmas is an obvious upgrade. The Texas O'Shoneys also listen to the SheDAISY Christmas Album (which, shockingly, has 77 customer reviews on Amazon). We've continued this part of the tradition only as a joke, but it has continued nonetheless.

3. We must have AT LEAST one argument over the use of ornament hangers. 

Daniel vehemently believes that ALL ornaments, regardless of whether or not they have pre-attached strings, should have metal ornament hangers attached to them. To him, this makes the ornaments last longer because he lives in an alternate reality where gravity does not exist. 

This is an absurd notion to me for several reasons. #1. SCIENCE...attaching the hanger to the string causes it to become taut from bearing the weight of the ornament. It then causes said string to wear down faster over time than if it were able to rest on a wide branch. #2. Aesthetics...it just looks odd to me to have ornaments hanging so much lower than the branches they are placed on. It's MADNESS, really.

Please weigh in on this debate in the comment section. I don't often exploit our marital disputes, but I feel like this one is far too important. 

4. We must wear our Christmas garb whilst decorating the tree.

This vest is very easily the best purchase I have ever made. I bought it at No Relation Vintage in the East Village way back in 2010 while I was here in NYC for an internship. I was so drawn to it that I bought it in October, before a hint of Christmas was even in the air. I love it because it is both tacky and utterly flattering. If I could wear it every day, I would, but instead I dawn it while decorating the tree and also to any Holiday event that follows. Daniel wears a santa hat that we bought at a dollar store. 

5. We must assess our mental health of the previous years by judging our ornament choices.

The above ornament was purchased as a white elephant gift by me and Daniel for a party we threw back in 2011. We loved it so much that we made sure that one of us ended up with it by the end of the night. It's apparently a depiction from Alice and Wonderland, but we just loved it because it looked like an absolute hot mess.

Each year when we look through our ornament box, we can't help but wonder what was wrong with us when we made the decision to buy these things. Like...guys...we've got some weird ones. We're even getting to the point where we can't remember where we got some of them, and when that happens, we just try to blame the ugly ones on friends or relatives (sorry, friends and relatives, I'm sure it wasn't you that got us the sad one-eared bear). 

6. We MUST MUST MUST have a fabulous photo shoot after we are done setting up the tree. 

And we have to capture everything...

even to the point of exhaustion...

...because, damnit, how often do we get to stand in front of such a beautiful backdrop?

We value traditions in our marriage, and we're still willing to add some new ones for Christmas this year. That's where you come in....

Comment with a Christmas tradition that YOU think we should adopt! It can literally be anything -- a tradition from your family, something you saw on Pinterest, or just something crazy that you make up 
-- whatever the case, we want to hear it.

We'll consider all of them, and not only will we add a few to our yearly set of traditions, but you'll also enter for a chance to
WIN A FREE SET OF ORNAMENTS handmade by ME
(and the hubs).

These ornaments will be homemade.
They will be sentimental.
They will most definitely be strange on some level 
(in the best way possible).
You know you want 'em.

Everyone is eligible, so start commenting!

Today I am excited to introduce you to Marney over at Sunshine and Monograms!

Etsy Shop -- Blog -- Facebook

First things first...that dog. Can we all just take a minute to appreciate how precious that little guy is? His name is Coconino and he looks like he loves cuddling, and I just want to give him all the treats.

Okay, now down to the real matter at hand. 

Marney creates personalized embroidery pieces, and it appears that this woman can basically embroider anything! Check out her Etsy shop to see what exactly I mean, but real quick, here is a sample of what you'll find there:

There is something about baby girls and dinosaurs that just works in my mind. If the same is true for you, snatch up one of Marney's customizable onesies! 

And if you're looking for some behind the scenes action, head to her blog where she showcases some of her favorite pieces and even gives delicious cooking tutorials. Plus, if you want to see more of Coconino, her blog is the place to be.

It's the holidays, y'all, so if you're looking to get something personalized for a friend or loved one, consider Sunshine and Monograms. Obviously, Marney is willing to work with you on a variety of customizable options, so check her out and tell her I said hey!

Sunshine and Monograms is featured today as one of Avoiding Atrophy's sponsors. If you are interested in advertising your blog or business here, head on over to my advertise page. I offer a variety of ad spots, including guest posts and giveaways as well as sponsor spotlights like you've seen here today.