Thursday, December 10, 2009

Traditions

Traditions
Well I have been thinking ALOT about traditions lately.
Traditions with my growing little family.
Daily Traditions, Weekly Traditions, Holiday Traditions...
I think about it and I get overwhelmed and then I never follow through with "all"
the "traditions" I want to do.
I want my kids to have special memories of things they did growing up.
I want my children to look forward to certain activities
and for their children to look forward to these activities.
I want the "traditions" to last forever.
I want some of them to be spiritual, some to be fun, some to be self-less, some to be funny...
My New Years Resolution ( I know a little early)
is to start these traditions and follow through.

Here are some that we already do:
Birthdays, Mothers Day, and Fathers Day
Breakfast in Bed
Open Presents in Bed
Dinner with just that person that evening
Cake & Ice Cream

Umm that is really all.
Is that sad or what???
There are other regular traditions that we do, like easter egg hunts,
and decorating for holidays and what not.
I want more.

Some Ideas are:
*Watching the Hot Air Balloons take Off
*Getting pajamas for eachother for Christmas
*Sledding as a family and having Hot Chocolate after
*Service for someone once a month (with the entire family)
*Sending a package to a friend for ThanksGiving (send one to each friend of the kids)
*Giving Toys we don't play with to someone who doesn't have toys (for Christmas)
*Visiting Graves on Memorial Day
*Go see the lights at Temple Square (Christmas)
*Staying at a cabin in the summer with the kids
*Fishing and Camping with the boys
*Give the kids something special on Valentines Day in some special way
*Something special for New Years with the kids
*Singing Christmas songs as a family
*Saving coins ALL year long and on the New Year split it into jars and have everyone guess and whoever get the closest gets it... (saw that on my friends blog)
*Have a craft day with the kids (except I don't know how long that will last with Boys)
*Take one child out for a special date, rotating months (doesn't have to be dinner just something they want to do, spend some special time with the child)
*Talking about something at the dinner table...I have heard of everyone saying what they were thankful for that day, or something someone did for them that day, or something they had learned, or just the HAPPY moment for them that day, or maybe do that once a week.
*Maybe a Sunday walk when its summer

I don't know.....

ANY IDEAS?
What do YOU do?
What are YOUR traditions???
(I need help)

(just a little picture to make you smile, you can't have a post with out a picture!)

4 comments:

christina said...

for bdays my mom would bring us lunch to school from anywhhere we wanted. she would cook us our fav dinner meal, and she would hide our presents and we would find each one with a different riddle she made up.

christmas. we get the christmas eve pjs. which ever wrapping paper our pjs are in that night is what our presents are wrapped in the next day. also... my mom has the prettiest nativity set. we all loved it growing up. except she wouldnt put the baby Jesus in the manger until christmas eve. it was always such a fun christmas eve for us. dinner. pjs. read the story of the birth of Christ. place Him in the manger. set out cookies and milk. go to bed.

these are some of my favorite childhood memories and traditions:)

jen hulet said...

Gosh, I have so many! Christmas Eve pajamas. Christmas Eve Dinner at Grandma Smith's, then we come home unwrap jammies and watch Luke 2, the birth of Jesus while we drink hot chocolate. Valentine's Dinner and a valentine's gift. Favorite meal on Birthday's, Gingerbread houses, and dip caramel apples in the fall! Seriously, those are just SOME of them!!!

Anonymous said...

It looks like you are on the right track. Traditions are where we really get our family memories, and I agree that they are very important. I hope we can add Hawaii on that list of traditions soon. You know a warm vacation during the freezing cold winter months. Cross your fingers.

Josh and Jillian said...

I totally understand about wanting to make your own family traditions now. Now that we have Emmett, Josh and I have been trying to make some. We are going to do the pjs on Christmas eve each year. I think birthdays are special too, so I try to make those fun. I think you have some great ideas!

I just saw the picture of Harper's shiner. Poor thing!! Emmett has bumped into everything and it is so sad when they get hurt.

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