Fun Family Traditions

[simplemama32]

Sweet and goofy things like family "holidays" of your own invention...Chocolate Chip Cookie Tuesday or Yellow Day (wear/eat only yellow things) or Backwards Day (eat dessert for breakfast and breakfast for supper) or Pajama Day.

What are your fun family traditions?

[mumkimum]

Well, dd likes to hold random 'love day's - these involve elaborately preparing bags of (her) candy which she gives to me & dh, and sometimes cards and/or pictures too. It's all very sweet .

[Qbear'smama]

Originally Posted by mumkimum

Well, dd likes to hold random 'love day's - these involve elaborately preparing bags of (her) candy which she gives to me & dh, and sometimes cards and/or pictures too. It's all very sweet .

OMG that is so adorable! Once in a while DH and DD have "daddy daughter day" where he takes a day off during the week and they spend it together doing whatever they want. If I can come too, she calls it "daddy mommy daughter day" It's nice for them to designate a day that is just for them and she gets excited and announces, "It's daddy daughter day!"

[limabean]

It's hard to think of them off the top of my head, but we like to do silly stuff like that. Tomorrow we're having an elaborate "birthday" party for DS's hamster, for example. The kids spent the morning making cards and decorations for it. It's pretty much an excuse to get me to make cupcakes, but that's fine with me!

And last week DS and I filled up 50 water balloons (it was supposed to be 100 but my fingers couldn't take any more tying) while DH was at work and surprised him with a "water park" in the backyard when he got home.

I guess those aren't really traditions in that they aren't things we do on the same day every year or anything, but they do make the day feel special somehow!

[simplemama32]

Love all of these! Keep them coming... :-)

[NellieKatz]

Every year, on the summer solstice (longest day of the year), we make S'mores out on the grill.

[Oriole]

DSD and I go out for pictures once in a while. We pick a place (a park, a field, beach), dress up for fun, drive out there and spend an hour or two taking pictures. Super duper memories. I wish I started it sooner. I have a few sets now that I am burning on DVDs with music.

DSD and her dad go out to Starbucks for father-daughter time about 2-3 times a month.

We always put on Little Women movie when we dress up a Christmas Tree.

[limabean]

I thought of a couple more (besides all the holiday traditions). We go to Yosemite most years and have for generations, and we always bring a strand of Christmas lights to decorate our camp, and bring a tablecloth and a potted plant to dress up the table. And the very first thing we have to do is walk to Happy Isles and get an orange juice bar from the snack bar -- for generations, that's just What You Do when you arrive in Yosemite.

[Black Orchid]

Originally Posted by limabean

I thought of a couple more (besides all the holiday traditions). We go to Yosemite most years and have for generations, and we always bring a strand of Christmas lights to decorate our camp, and bring a tablecloth and a potted plant to dress up the table. And the very first thing we have to do is walk to Happy Isles and get an orange juice bar from the snack bar -- for generations, that's just What You Do when you arrive in Yosemite.

I got such a happy feeling reading this. THIS is the kind of thing that I want to create for my kids... this this this!!! What a nice thing!!!!

[InMediasRes]

My kids and I have tea time every afternoon at 4:30. We picked out fun tea cups at the thrift store and we have homemade bread with jam. You know, "tea with jam and bread". Now I'm going to be singing all night.

[Ravensong13]

We have a Faery tea party on Midsummer now ( 2 years running). DD wears wings and a dress she picks out, we do bubbles and glitter and have raw honey on rolls with some fruit, blooming flower tea and little edible flowers. We have all this in the backyard with dancing to 'dance magic dance' by Bowie and Faery hunting in the evening. This year I taught dd about leaving offerings to the Fay and asking for blessings. I hope she wants to do this for years and years to come!

We have some daily traditions like making a race out of going to the bathroom for bath time and leaving little offerings at our outdoor altar/shrine. I'm still trying to find more things for holidays and maybe to try and make up our own holidays too!

[limabean]

Originally Posted by Black Orchid

I got such a happy feeling reading this. THIS is the kind of thing that I want to create for my kids... this this this!!! What a nice thing!!!!

Aw, thanks! Yosemite is very special for my family (we even call it My-semite because we sort of think it's ours ) -- I'm the 5th-generation woman in my family to have climbed Half Dome and can't wait to continue that tradition with my kids, especially my daughter. There's an awesome story about how my great-grandmother climbed the cables, enjoyed the view, climbed back down, realized she'd left her sweater up top, and climbed back up to get it.

[blessedwithboys]

Before my 15yo got too old, we used to have Naked Laundy Day about once a week. I am super-OCD about my housework. I love to see everything done and put away all at once. It's my favorite little gift to myself to know there is not one more dish to wash or one more load of laundry in the hamper.

So when the kiddos were much smaller, we would just literally all runa round butt naked for one day while I washed every single dirty sheet, towel, and article of clothing.

Then after everything was put away and the house was cleaned and shining, we would all take showers, ds2 usually with me and put on PJs and settle in for a movie and early bedtime in our freshly washed linens. And the dinner of choice for Naked Laundry Day was chocolate chip pancakes fried in coconut oil made from scratch and eaten straight out of the pan.

Now that the kids are 8 and 15 and think it's worse to see mother naked than to eat a bowlful of boogers, I only get to do it if they aren't home. I skip the pancakes now, though. LOL

[limabean]

Oh, I thought of another one! Every Saturday morning is "Daddycakes Day," where DH lets me sleep in and makes pancakes for everyone, and I get to be lured downstairs by the smell of coffee and pancakes around 9am -- it's heavenly!

Last year for father's day I took DS to a paint-your-own-pottery place and he made a special plate just for DH to eat his daddycakes on.

[simplemama32]

Naked Laundry Day?! That sounds like something we need to try...DS runs around nakey most of the time anyway. And it's so HOT outside, too... ;-)

limabean -- love the Yosemite traditions and Daddycakes Day

[jump mama jump!]

Originally Posted by Ravensong13

We have a Faery tea party on Midsummer now ( 2 years running). DD wears wings and a dress she picks out, we do bubbles and glitter and have raw honey on rolls with some fruit, blooming flower tea and little edible flowers. We have all this in the backyard with dancing to 'dance magic dance' by Bowie and Faery hunting in the evening. This year I taught dd about leaving offerings to the Fay and asking for blessings. I hope she wants to do this for years and years to come!

Nice! I mean the whole thing is awesome but that just makes it! I think this is my favorite so far.

We don't have any family traditions yet as we have just started our family.

[EmTheWife]

It was all about the "3 o'clock ice cream stop" in my family growing up, and we plan to continue with it once ds is old enough. This tradition involves stopping for a frozen treat at 3pm when traveling and on road trips...!!!

[blizzard_babe]

Well, DS is pretty young (he's two), but every so often we have "movie in bed night," where we all pile into mom and dad's bed (we don't cosleep anymore), and watch a movie on the computer until we all fall asleep.

[NWnewmom]

I grew up eating extremely healthy: no sugars, limited fats, all local or grown on our farm and vegetarian. We we're the ones who got carob chips in our brown bag lunches as a "treat". Granted, I now value a well balanced diet and locally grown foods and am passing that on to my husband and son. But my dad had a day we would call "Dream Time" where we would venture out and get an ice cream cone or doughnut at the local shop. It was pretty special and made me appreciate sweets as a rare treat.

[dachshundqueen]

Mystery car rides to awesome places, I treasure those memories from childhood. Especially the ones that ended at TCBY. Dad would yell, "Mystery ride!" Everyone would run to the car and wait and wonder where we were going.

Liz