Family
Traditions
Some family traditions are fading as we get older, as the
cousins grow and have their own children, when aunts become Nanas and uncles
become Papas. Everyone splits off and
goes with their “own” family. It makes
me sad and miss those times when we would all gather at my grandma’s house, all
of us so young and all of us so happy. Happy
didn’t change, just who is around did.
Some things about our families haven’t changed. My mom is the youngest of six; only one of
those is a boy. So there are five
sisters that mostly have the same taste in décor. So the family tradition that I was thinking
about tonight as I cleaned off the kitchen counter was…Christmas cookie
jars. On my mother’s side, you either
have a tree cookie jar or a gingerbread house cookie jar. Most of the sisters have both and sometimes
both will be out in the same house. The
first Christmas we had as a married couple, my mom gave me a gingerbread house
cookie jar.
I’m pretty sure that my aunt did the same thing with my cousin.
I’m pretty sure that my aunt did the same thing with my cousin.
Other End
of the Year Holiday Traditions
·
For Halloween we attend our church’s Halloween Party
·
My mom makes special Halloween baggies for all her
nieces’ and nephews’ kids
·
Thanksgiving has been spent at my grandpa’s ranch
since when most of the cousins started having kids
·
Christmas Eve is spent at my parents and Christmas
Day is spent at my grandpa’s ranch
·
Ever since I can remember we would go look at
Christmas lights and it’s a tradition that we continue now as a new family
·
We always go to our church’s Christmas party to see
Santa (Something that I thought was so awesome was that the man who played
Santa at church for my first Christmas was the same man who was Santa at
Evelyn’s first Christmas and being that our birthdays are only 7 days apart, we
were almost the exact same age for our first picture with Santa. Of course, Evelyn having her father’s height
is so much bigger than I was at the same time of year for everything.)
·
Growing up, we were allowed to open one present on
Christmas Eve night before going to bed but it just couldn’t be our “main
gift.” I think that is something that we
plan on doing as well
·
My mother in law made stockings for all her kids,
and eventually her grandkid, that have traditional looking German doll girls
(for the girls) and traditional looking German tin soldiers (for the boys)
·
Tom’s family always had that countdown to Christmas
felt Christmas tree where you would add a different ornament each day, starting
on the 1st, ending on Christmas Eve with the star on top of the tree
(Kathy made us one on Evelyn’s first Christmas as well as German girl stockings
for the two of us, Tom already had one of course)
I love traditions. When I
was younger, I didn’t think that my family had many traditions, we never called
them traditions; we just did them all the time.
Which I know that makes them traditions, now I know that. As a child, if someone doesn’t tell you what
something is then you don’t easily put 4 and 4 together.
No comments:
Post a Comment