My Brothers, Me, Mike TV, and Charlie from the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

When it comes to holidays, my family is deeply rooted in tradition. We do the same thing every year, like make an absurd amount of Christmas cookies- if you don’t feel sick by the end of the day you didn’t eat enough cookie dough and you didn’t go all out, pansie (my personal opinion). We also add here and there as we find new things. My family has a taste for the eclectic, eccentric, exciting, and unique. Our recent fad is the Redford Theater, an all volunteer run organization that plays old movies, starts the show with an organ performance, and often hosts celebrities…. I’ve met the original cast of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Check out their upcoming Holiday Schedule (http://www.redfordtheatre.com/) – I’ll be there for White Christmas, I have a sweatshirt just for the occasion. While you’re there, be sure to check out Sweet Potato Sensations.  Anyways, my point for this blog is to A. share some of my Metro Detroit Traditions (some of which I hope you haven’t heard of) and B. run and interesting parallel between the identity of a city and the creation of traditions as a family who is not originally from Detroit but has chosen to make it their home for the last 20+ years.

Irval Street off of Utica Rd. near Dodge Park, Sterling Heights

My family is not originally from Detroit, but I still consider myself raised as a Metro Detroiter. You can see some traces of non-Michigander in my life, like a few words I say that make my fellow Michiganders ask where I am from. Actually, my family has a pretty non-traditional background. Each of us, besides my parents, were born in a different state, which makes it a little interesting to cross the border together. My parents were both born in Buffalo, NY, I was born in Charleston, SC, my middle brother was born in Boston, MA, and my youngest brother is a born and raised metro-Detroiter. I have lived in 4 different states before the age of 6- you can see how this may have resulted in an interesting way  of speaking. Anyways, my entire extended family lives in Buffalo, NY. It is just us 5 here in Detroit- (surprisingly, because there are an absurd amount of people with the last name Grabowski here, all of which I am unrelated to, go figure). As a result of living so far from my extended family, the immediate 5 of us have frequently seen many holidays isolated as a unit. I believe that as a result, together we have given the holiday season an identity of our own. But, not only do we do the things we have always done- like visit the INSANELY DECORATED house in my neighborhood (a MUST SEE, guaranteed to take you on a whirlwind of Holiday flashbacks, your heart might even grow three times its size when you see it; Directions: Near Dodge Park in Sterling Heights take Utica Road to Irval Street and drive straight [South West] down the street to experience total awe.) but we are always doing something new as well.

Me and my brothers as Legos!

This Thanksgiving my brothers and I ran the turkey trot dressed as Lego Men, the usual, and then headed home to my parents house for a monstrous meal of turkey and etc. However, this year was a little different, because we had three additional guests, one of which was a fellow fellow, Ben. My family very easily adopts people and invites them to be a part of our traditions. We seek the new but respect the old. I never really realized this until this year, but my family might be weird, not because of our interests, but because of our desire to continuously expand on tradition. Not only do we deeply, wholly, devotedly respect the recipes of grandma, but we also say hell yeah, lets get up at 4 AM and run a race. Its fun to create identity- to know every year I will go to the Eagle Tavern at Greenfield Village on one of their Holiday nights and eat with people dressed like they’re from the 17th century. Our desire to create an identity for our unit of 5 has also resulted in us creating an identity for Detroit and Michigan. We explore. I challenge you this Holiday Season to give your celebrations a meaningful identity- shop local, experience local, and be local. Happy Holidays!