Fun Family Traditions - Page 2

[cameransmommy]

Originally Posted by NellieKatz

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

We do a bonfire for the winter solstice. The kids play drums, make smore's, stay up late and play in the dark. At Christmastime, we make hot cocoa and cookies to bring on long walks to look at decorated houses. Birthdays mean baking your own cake (with help from mama) and decorating the house with streamers. We have a special fairy garden near the front garden and we collect nature treasures that we think the fairies might like to place there.

[mumm]

Originally Posted by Oriole

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

Date nights with the kids. One parent and one kid. We used to try to plan but that always ended up in disappointment on both parties part. Now it is something that the adults try to work into the schedule and spring on the kids. Last week I picked up my eldest from camp and told him date night. He picked a movie. I got ac, he got the movie and we both got to talk all alone in the car. I hope he continues to talk to me well into his teens. DD's favorite date night is a rice crispie treat at starbucks while we play mancala. Secretly, I think she just likes to watch the well dressed women chat since she doesn't focus much on the game!

On Winter's solstice we head to "our" woods (neighborhing conservation land) for a walk in the dusk leaving treats we've made for animal friends. (pb covered toast dredge in birdseed sort of items) Then we go home for lasanga eaten by candle light only and we head off to bed only by candlelight. We sometimes burn old man winter (a body shape made of sticks and twigs) because the days then start to get longer.

I think most people do this, but breakfast for dinner means we drink juice with dinner. Always a huge hit.

Birthdays- I make the cake for the friends' party but the birthday person gets to make the family cake if they so wish. Of course they also get to pick the meal. "Cake" often means ice cream sundaes, a favorite cookie, etc. I once got an awesome berry salad for my cake.

[MaerynPearl]

Growing up, once a month in the winter we would have ice cream sundaes for supper.

When my kids were younger we used to have random dance moments, mommy would put on some music and we would dance.

all of last year we would take a walk before supper. The kids loved that enough that they motivated me to do it (it was my exercise) but now that I am pregnant and have SPD I cant =(

[want2bmoms]

Re-Christmas.
We are, as a rule, VERY non-religious. If anything, we lean toward Buddhist. But both of us grew up with Christmas and therefore celebrate is a time for family and bonding and food you never eat and seeing people who you never see (...and sometimes feel like that's too much, but they ARE family and family sticks together...). One year, Christmas.just.sucked. Mom lost her house, we fought, the car broke down, brother relapsed... you get the idea, REALLY.BAD.DAY.times ten.
So we called a re-do one month out, did the basic family obligations, stock-piled the gifts, curled up alone together, ate frozen pizza, and watched lame cartoons.
January 25? The tree was still up, the lights were on, Christmas music was playing, Christmas movies from the DVR were played all day, and we opened gifts, had a nice dinner, and played up the day.
We now just plan Christmas to suck, give the kiddos prezzies, roll our eyes, and appreciate (greatly) anything that goes well that day.
Re-Christmas is the stuff we wait for. Kids at respite after a nice breakfast, grown ups exchange gifts, have a nice evening out, and get some rest.
The kids love it because it's always a fun day at respite, and we all get a healthy break.

[da-tamsta]

Oh! I love your traditions. We have a couple. My DS and I have a picnic breakfast every saturday at the duck pond near our house. Sometimes we hit the drive thru, sometimes it is sandwiches, or cereal bars. Always coffee for me, milk for him. It started because my DH works nights (and weekends) and I needed something to do on the weekend mornings so DH could get SOME sleep before he heads off to work. And every Sunday morning we go grocery shopping as soon as we wake up.

Also, at the end of the week of DS stays on Green at daycare (was good) he gets to pick dinner. Sometimes it tacos (yes!) or nachos (yes!) or mcdonalds (ew!). But his choice if he has behaved all week. Sometimes he doesn't want to pick which means BBQ something.

We also walk once around our block most nights (it has been way too hot on our puppys paws this month so we are taking a hiatus.) This wears DS out and the dogs at the same time.

He is just three, but befor every major holiday we sit down and learn some history about the holiday. This year for the 4th we learned about the flag and that it was the birthday of 'merica. (He wanted to bake a birthday cake for 'merica- instead we had sundaes at a friends house...)

[raidercake]

A couple of fun traditions for you --
My aunt started taking her son to McDonalds for breakfast on Friday when he started kindergarten. They've never missed! And now he's a 19-year-old grown man, and still asks "mom, are we going to breakfast tomorrow??" So cute!
Second - this was my DH's first fathers day. I bought a cheapy scrapbook at Hobby Lobby and some craft paint. We stamped his hand on a page in the scrapbook, let it dry, and stamped DD baby hand on top of his in a different color. Our plan is to create a new page every fathers day with both of their hands.
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[jessica_anne010]

Unintentional Tradition

My 10yo just pointed out yesterday that we have a tradition.

Every 6 months after the girls have a dentist appt we go to my mom's and our favorite Chinese restaurant (it's just down the street). After the girls appt in January we went for the first time without my mom because she was out of town on vacation. We couldn't not go, even though we didn't realize it was a tradition, it's become pretty ingrained!

[livinlovinlaughin]

I love these traditions! I'm going to have to steal the handprint scrapbook idea. Thanks!

Originally Posted by 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.

This is how I am trying to teach DS to value healthy food. I was wondering how often you had your "Dream Time". Also, did you eat the treats away from home like at birthday parties and things?

[KittyM]

DD is 15.5 now, but in the 5th grade she started an end-of-school tradition - she invites a bunch of kids over and they burn their homework in the backyard fire pit! It's really cathartic for them as they get to review everything and talk over projects, memories, etc. Then s'mores, naturally. This year we had about 15 kids, so I had to tell them to bring only a "symbolic" amount of paper, otherwise we'd have burned all night! DS (12.5) is starting the same tradition with his friends.

[Dukey25]

One tradition we do is celebrate sibling day which I decided would be the last weekend in July. Every year I make them a photo album with pictures of themselves and their siblings and we bake a cake (because what celebration wouldn't be complete with out cake). I plan to include different activities based on what the kids want to do to celebrate their siblings but mostly for us it is just a time when we can celebrate our family.

[MrsFred]

When I was a kid, we got to open one gift on Christmas Eve. Eventually it became the same gift every year - pyjamas. So we would open the gift and then run and put on our Christmas pj's just before going to bed. My DD has only had two Christmas' but she had Christmas pyjamas both times.

[sweetcheeks]

What a fun thread to read! I love how ordinary moments can become traditions.

Every Saturday night we have pizza and Wii night. I make homemade pizza... a big one for DH and myself and 3 individual pizzas for the kids. They get to put on their toppings and then we always have a picnic on the living room floor while watching "How It's Made" and "Cash Cab" on Discovery. After we tidy up from supper, we play Wii for a little bit. We all look forward to Saturday nights at home!

When we go up north every summer for holidays at DH's grandmother's cottage, we always go for a swim *before* breakfast and wash up. Now I'm talking quite north (north of the 54th parallel) so the water isn't always necessarily warm. And for those of us who do go for a swim, we get a daisy from DH's grandmother. For those that don't swim, they get a pansy.