We have some great employees at Snider Advisors. To show my appreciation, I like to give them some extra time around the holidays to spend with their family and friends. As a result, our normal levels of support might be a little delayed. We thank you for all your business in 2016 and look forward to an even better 2017. Please keep reading to learn a little more about our favorite holiday traditions.
Jesse
My favorite holiday tradition is our family’s Christmas Eve dinner. Our whole extended family gets together for a traditional polish dinner. It is a vegetarian meal that includes fish, halupki, kapusta, and perogies. One other tradition of the dinner includes passing around oplatki. It is a Christmas wafer that everyone takes a bite of. It symbolizes love, sharing, and forgiveness between the entire family. This dinner is by far my favorite meal of the year. Since my hometown is in northwestern Pennsylvania, unfortunately, I don’t get to enjoy the meal every year. But I try my best to never miss it!
Tyler
Our favorite Christmas tradition is called the “Pay It Forward Tradition.” My wife’s grandparents started this tradition in their family over 20 years ago. Instead of buying them a Christmas gift, we do something generous for someone less fortunate. Sometimes we personally know the person, family, or charity, and sometimes we don’t. We write in a card what we did (in honor of them) and they read the card to the family on Christmas Day. It’s an emotional time for everyone as we cherish each other, reflect on the year, appreciate what we have, and remember the real meaning of Christmas. This is our daughters first Christmas and I look forward to passing this tradition down to her.
Shelley
My favorite holiday tradition involves food, of course! When I was growing up, we spent most holidays at my grandparent’s lake cabin. My grandmother was a fantastic cook. She spent days on end preparing an abundance of goodies for us. But the entire family’s favorite was her legendary chocolate sheet cake. The running joke was an argument about which grandchild she made the chocolate cake for. It was a never-ending battle to see who could say fastest and loudest, “You know Nanny made the chocolate cake just for me!” (For the record, I’m pretty sure it was always me.) My grandmother has been gone for many years, but I continue her tradition of making a chocolate sheet cake at holidays. Mine are never quite as good, but the memories are just as sweet.
Robert
Most of the traditions for Christmas in my family revolve around food. We generally have a baked ham on Christmas Eve, with Mashed and sweet potatoes. On Christmas Day, my dad makes a big breakfast, including cinnamon rolls, hash browns, bacon and eggs. For Christmas Night, we have a roast with roeshti (German shredded potatoes). My mother also loves to bake. She makes three types of desserts, generally: chocolate brownies with mint frosting, chocolate and caramel cake squares, and conga bars (chocolate chip cookie brownies, which are probably my favorite).
