2020 has been a different year for sure, and it is now altering our long-standing holiday traditions. One is that my husband’s side of the family gives away a “wienie award” every year. The current reigning wienie has the entire year to give this award away to the person in our family they believe has been the biggest wienie. It is usually a funny reason, and not something to make the person feel bad. For example, I got it once for moving to Wisconsin and taking a Caron with me (from my mother-in-law). Last year my son got the award for having “Spidey Blood”, because he was bit by a brown recluse spider in his dorm room (that wasn’t funny, but the way his cousin presented it made it funny).
Christmas Traditions
Traditionally, the reigning Wienie makes a grand presentation to give the award away, and then our family sings a song, “Weenie Man”. Then the Wienie hat is passed on to the new wienie who goes through the box of collected treasures. Each winner has to add a “hot dog” object to the bin yearly. We currently have 2 bins full of Wienie Treasures.
Giving the Wienie Award To My Nephew
We thought long and hard about who to give this award to this year. It’s tough to judge, because we haven’t seen family since March due to Covid, and we aren’t gathering for Christmas this year for the first time ever, either. SO, we decided to break tradition and give the Wienie Award to the year 2020 instead of a person.
We scheduled a family Zoom call, and I planned a program for my husband’s siblings. My husband is from a large family with 7 siblings (8 counting him, and all of their first names begin with the letter M). I asked one child (the cousins are all adults now) to perform. We have songs that are meaningful in our family, a funny skit, memories of the Grandparents, a blessing, etc.
My Son The Reigning Wienie of 2019
The grand-finale is my son giving away the “Wienie Award.” We wrote a poem explaining how the year 2020 earned the Wienie honor, and ended it by saying we hope to gather in person for a family Christmas dinner when my son will give the award to an actual person.
Our holiday may look different this year; however, we are still celebrating “the reason for the season” with our family of four and my mom. We look forward to Zoom calls with my husband’s side of the family and with mine, and with time spent together playing games, eating fun food and counting our blessings.
I pray your Christmas/holiday celebrations are peaceful and joyful.