Your Family Traditions - Page 2

[Girlsmama]

Our family traditions include:

One Weekend a month we have girls weekend, DH will go out of town to go fishing or something along those lines and my sister and her two DDs will come over and we spend the entire weekend doing girls stuff (i.e shoppig, seeing a movie, painting nails.. etc)

On the second weekend of October, we go to a local farm and pick apples and pumpkins. Then we come back home and carve the pumpkins.

On Christmas eve, we decorate our christmas tree and then after our church service we drive around fancy neighborhoods and look at all the christmas lights while the kids eat cookies that we made together.

On Valentines day we draw names and you have to get something or make something for the person you drew. Most of the time its just candy the person likes.

We also have friday night date/movie nights. My DH and I go out on a date and the girls get to pick out a movie to watch, they get popcorn and fruit for dinner and they get to eat in the living room.

We have so many more but i think that these are my favorite!

[boatbaby]

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[erin_d_a]

Every year on July 25 we take the day off work and have Christmas in July and watch QVC all day because they are doing christmas stuff all day. We have frozen hot chocolate (to hot for real hot chocolate) and finger food.

We don't have a meal on Christmas day, just finger foods all day long.

DH is in the navy and we are usually far from family, so the saturday before thanksgiving we host a huge thanksgiving dinner for everybody we know who is also far from their family. In the past we have had sixty people from all over the country and in a few cases the world.

We adopt a member of each branch of the armed services that is deployed and send them letters of encouragement every month.

We celebrate wednesdays with hamburgers stuffed with blue cheese and topped with sauteed mushrooms and onions.

We get up very early on sunday mornings and work at the homless shelter before church.

When we move I've got one picture that gets taken down last and put up first because it reminds me of where I come from and where we are going.

The christmas tree goes up the day after thanksgiving.

[Kayaking Mama]

Great thread! Here are some of ours:

1. Your birthday celebration starts one week prior to your actual birthday, with singing "happy birthday" every morning, maybe one little gift or a special treat or activity (nothing expensive, I'm talking like a magazine, favorite food, etc).

2. The Christmas tree CANNOT go up before DH's birthday (12/14) and has to come down before DS's birthday (1/6). No combining of birthday and Christmas gifts is allowed (among our nuclear family--if other family members or friends combine gifts, we're just grateful for the gifts!).

3. A new tradition from this past Christmas, which I heard about from someone else, and which we adopted to limit the number of gifts (DH and I both tend to be over-buyers when it comes to gifts): for Christmas, each of us bought the other "something you want, something you need, something to play with, something to read." It worked out well and did make us think more carefully about what we were buying and not impulse buy.

4. On Mother's Day, we pack a picnic and visit a nearby garden which has a big plant sale every year. On the way home, we stop for the best frozen custard EVER at a stand that opens for the season on Mother's Day.

5. Christmas Eve dinner: antipasto, lasagna, and the special Christmas cookies that my grandmother, my mother and I spend most of December baking.

Hmmm...I'm sure there are more but that's all I can think of at the moment. I love the half-birthday idea (especially with our Dec/Jan birthdays) and the solstice pizza!

[Novella]

Originally Posted by Ellien C

We've had an Easter beer hunt since we were first married.

This is AWESOME! Ok. . . so I'm into the third beer tonight, awaiting DH home from a week-long business trip tomorrow. . . But I would still think it was a good idea if I was sober! Outdoor hunts can be dicey with our April weather, but I would hope to incorporate this for DH!

Originally Posted by erin_d_a

When we move I've got one picture that gets taken down last and put up first because it reminds me of where I come from and where we are going.

Wow! I don't move a lot, but I just love this. It's so romantic! (In the worldly sense of 'romantic', not the sexual, of course) Thanks!

[Novella]

So. . . traditions in our family:

1. We camp one weekend each summer with an old college friend of mine. We've been doing this for four years (since her nephew came to permanently live with her). So far, we've always gone to a different provincial park.

2. Birthdays MUST involve homemade and elaborately decorated cakes for any of our children (homemade and not-so-elaborately-decorated is OK for adults! )

3. We make a prepare-ahead meal for breakfast on Christmas morning. I have a wicked-good recipe for pesto-bruschetta-strata. That way, we ALL get to relax (after big long Xmas Eve night with DH's european family).

4. We go for a hike at a nearby valley at least once every fall. It's beautiful.

5. Our elementary school encourages parents to picnic with their children on Track and Field day. Just great.

6. I make very fancy, personalized Christmas stockings for each of our children (yeah, I'm behind, but that's beside the point! Who woulda' thought? Having sex is easier and more fun than spending 16 hours manufacturing a boot-shaped stocking!)

7. We take our kids to the same midway at a local fair every summer. They talk about it and look forward to it ALL YEAR LONG.

8. We get a real tree for Christmas. With the exception of one year (that I don't care to repeat, I learned my lesson) we cut it ourselves in an excusion in a provincial park (yes, that's legal, you just get a $2 permit. Yup, that's $2!).

9. We leave the hospital immediately (ie. within hours) when we have a baby and rush home, happy to spend the time with DH's many siblings and the wider family (Sadly, I think this tradition is at an end for us, but it's been grand!)

[becoming]

We do the Friday Dance in the car on the way to work/daycare on Friday mornings. We just find a really peppy song on the radio and dance around like crazy people (whilest safely keeping my eyes on the road ).

I've been wanting to start talking about our High & Low of the day when we're eating dinner together but haven't gotten this underway yet.

[Ianthe]

Originally Posted by Kayaking Mama

3. A new tradition from this past Christmas, which I heard about from someone else, and which we adopted to limit the number of gifts (DH and I both tend to be over-buyers when it comes to gifts): for Christmas, each of us bought the other "something you want, something you need, something to play with, something to read." It worked out well and did make us think more carefully about what we were buying and not impulse buy.

5. Christmas Eve dinner: antipasto, lasagna, and the special Christmas cookies that my grandmother, my mother and I spend most of December baking.

I LOVE the idea of 4 gifts for Christmas! I will have to note that and remember for this next year!

We also do (vegan) lasagna for xmas or xmas eve dinner!

----

Here are ours that's we've started the 2 years we've been together:

Tofurkey Thanksgiving with my parents and my IL's (except FIL and SMIL's family). My mom always makes the vegan chocolate-chocolate chip cake!

We buy a real, plantable, tree for Xmas, take care of it until spring and plant it.

Gluewine (hot spiced wine) on winter-solstice. (Maybe hot cocoa for the kid )

We have one Christmas ornament a year (one for our family, one for the kid/s ).

Easter veggie BBQ, and easter egg hunt at Gramma's house.

I would like to start, when ds is older-

That every new toy he gets as a gift, he gives an old toy away.

Once a year (winter holidays?) we take our 10% "Tithing" and choose a charity to donate to.

[amydawnsmommy]

Originally Posted by Kayaking Mama

Great thread! Here are some of ours:

1. Your birthday celebration starts one week prior to your actual birthday, with singing "happy birthday" every morning, maybe one little gift or a special treat or activity (nothing expensive, I'm talking like a magazine, favorite food, etc).

That sounds sooooo great! Can I come visit the week before my birthday?

[amydawnsmommy]

Originally Posted by becoming

We do the Friday Dance in the car on the way to work/daycare on Friday mornings. We just find a really peppy song on the radio and dance around like crazy people (whilest safely keeping my eyes on the road ).

I've been wanting to start talking about our High & Low of the day when we're eating dinner together but haven't gotten this underway yet.

Friday dances in the car sound great!! We do those any day of the week!

Every day I ask Hope what her favourite thing of the day was and she asks me too. Usually it's at bedtime. It's a nice way to think of the nice things we did that day.

[katheek77]

Our daughter is too old to really understand traditions yet, but my family did some that I will probably continue when she's older...

Saturday mornings...ever since we knew our numbers (or could match), on Saturday mornings, Mom would set out one of those individual boxes of cereal, a banana or something like that, and a cup of milk on the lowest shelf of the fridge. We could watch cartoons. We could NOT wake up Mom and Dad until the numbers on the real clock and the one they made matched unless it was an emergency...LOL...usually 830 or 900. We loved it...and they got some extra sleep.

Wednesday was spaghetti day. Every Wednesday. If not spaghetti, then ziti or something like that. It was just something we looked forward to.

We open one gift on Christmas Eve. My parents used to do this with just themselves, and then we caught on to it, and demanded equal gifting. My parents realized (I'm sure) that it was one way to keep us from going crazy on Christmas Eve if we had a new book or game or whatever to occupy us for a bit.

Speaking of Christmas: Turkey and Lasagna. I swear I was a teenager before I realized that not every family did Lasagna on Christmas.

And, no, we're not Italian.

Every Christmas we get a new ornament. I've already started this for my daughter. I also collect ornaments when we go on vacation, so, I have some odd ones, but they all have a story, and they're small, so, it's a good "collectable".

Tree goes up on Polish Christmas (Dec 6). It stays up through Russian Christmas (Jan 7). My grandparents still celebrate Russian Christmas...small dinner, small gifts, etc.

Around here, Saturdays are fast becoming "take out" night. I'm happy to have that one continue.

We got to the Pittsburgh Air Show (Wings Over Pittsburgh) each year. We went when Katie was 7 days old last year, and went again this year. Wherever we move next, we'll find a new air show to attend.

We have a rattle that is in her one day old photo. DH bought it for her while I was in labor...we call it the "cowraffe" (no one can decide if it's a cow or giraffe...very odd). For her one year photo, she's holding it. We joke that it'll be in her prom and wedding photos as well. We'd like to keep that tradition.

One of Katie's gifts each Christmas is a donation. Last year, it was for an organization that helps Russian orphans. This year, who knows, but I like that tradition.

When we went on vacation as kids, we were allowed to pick out our own breakfasts at the store, no questions asked. There were a lot of breakfasts of hershey bars and cocoa puffs, but, hey, it was one week a year. And we SO looked forward to it.

We also bought a good load of books (maybe 5-8 apiece) before vacation. We drove down, so that helped keep us occupied. We used to spend the weeks ahead of time deciding what "breakfast" and books we were going to get.

[momto l&a]

Originally Posted by maya44

Hmmm, good question:

Family Meals where we do the "Three Things that Happened to me today and guess which one I am making up". That's fun!

Half-Birthdays: You get half a cake (the bakery near us sells 1/2 cakes) and cute little presents and your favorites for dinner.


Doughnuts are ONLY eaten on vacation


Toothmantha; Our tooth fairy. She brings presents, writes notes in a glittery silver maker and leaves fairy dust (shimmery body powder) sprinkled on your pillow


Presents in your underwear drawer: When I was little I used to think how cool it would be to one day just open up my underwear drawer (the first thing I did every morning) and find a present. Now 3 or 4 times a year my dd's open up their undewear drawer and find a present.


Spa-baths (used on very cold days or when dd's aren't feeling great) Hot bath, Lots of yummy smelling bubbles (Philosophy bubble baths), Lots of candles (on the vanity...not the bathtub) and your favorite "trashy" magazine for younger dd's that's Archie, for older one it's Teen People or Cosmo Girl!


Day after Thanksgiving Give Away. We go through all our toys/books etc... and clear out old toys and books. Take them to the local charitable institutions the next week


Hot Chocolate (mom's special recipe) after you are out in the snow (Mom's recipe involves melting together Hershies kisses and Semi-Sweet Chocolate chips and just a touch of milk). It's sinful!

Ohhhh You are such a fun momma!!!!

[LankyLizards]

We did the "open one present on Xmas eve" thing, and then my little borther and I manipulated my mother into letting us open all of the presents that were from our one aunt in NY (who wouldn't even know...: ) and now it's like we open all of the presents from any relative in NY on Christmas Eve.

My family's been doing this thing the last couple of years, where, on Thanksgiving, we all write down a different country and then we put all of the names in a hat and each pick one. For Christmas Eve dinner, we each make traditional holiday (not necessarily Christmas) food from the country we picked. I 've gotten Ireland, Wales, India, and Mexico. Usually my mother, my aunt, and my cousin's wife and I participate.

Oh, here's a strange one. Every year since my grandmother passed away four years ago, my aunt, mother, and I go to visit her grave on her birthday and eat cupcakes and sing "Happy Birthday" (quietly).

I hope to start a lot of traditions with DD, probably starting this year (she's almost two). This thread is giving me great ideas.

[flapjack]

We do grandad day- my dad died when I was carrying Alex, so twice a year I make a point of doing the things that he loved to do and would have enjoyed sharing with the boys (stopping for as long as they want to watch the diggers and dumper trucks at work, a trip to the seaside, a walk in the woods, a mug of hot tea. Small things, but that made him- and make them- happy.)
Guy Fawkes night is a big deal in our family. Pinwheel sandwiches in the school lunchboxes, homemade cinder toffee, pack a flask of soup and off to an organised display with lots and lots of sparklers. I love fireworks, and so do the kids
New Years Eve is a family time for us. We normally spend the holiday with my mum and on the night we visit my uncle and aunt. Leftover Xmas cake, a quiet drink, space for the kids to play and people for them to talk to and listening for the cathedral bells at midnight. The last couple of years, Alex and Isaac have been old enough to first-foot as well. Traditionally, if the first person over your doorstep in the new year is a dark and handsome stranger carrying bread, salt and coal, then your year will be a prosperous one We've done an easter egg hunt in their garden as well the last couple of years.
We have a special beach up in Northumberland that we have to visit at least once a year, with all the traditions that go with it. Recently we've started our own tradition of leaving an offering in a strong, old magickal tree that stands just overlooking the henge at Avebury. The boys saw the ribbon tied on and wanted to do something similar, so they write messages on leaves and leave nuts and seeds for the wildlife I love my kids sometimes.

[Kidzaplenty]

Traditions in our family mostly center around holiday celebrations. We celebrate most all holidays in some way. Off the top of my head here are ours.

The Biggies:

Christmas.
1. Every member of the family and Grandma gets a new engraved brass ornament (the flat kind). So we have an ornament from everyone for every year since they were born.

2. Christmas decorations do not go up until Christmas Eve (or sometimes the eve of Christmas Eve).

3. We don't do a Christmas tree, but instead have a Nativity Scene (big 3 ft tall kind) as our center piece and decorate around it with lights and such.

4. All the stuffed animal in the house come out to 'worship' Baby Jesus on Christmas morning, so while the children are sleeping, we move them all to the manger scene.

5. We have 'Christmas Trays' as our meal for Christmas, all finger foods, no cooking all day long. (Cheese tray, veggie tray, meat tray, fruit tray, cracker tray, cookie tray). All served with Christmas 'Wine'. The non-alcoholic wine, grape juice stuff.

6. Christmas Day is for immediate family only, celebrations with extended family must be a different day.

7. Grandma (my Mom) claims Christmas Eve's eve day for celebration.

Plagues Week.5. & Resurrection Day/Easter
We have a plagues week.5 where the Tuesday 12 days before Easter we begin our Plagues. Each day the children will wake up to a new plague as we reenact the 10 plagues the Egyptians endured. This is done with a lot of rubber insects and many other props that create a fun and historical learning experience for them. It continues every day with Plague number 10 being on the Thursday before Resurrection Day (Easter).

On Good Friday, we celebrate a modified 'Passover' feast including reenacting everything and tying the First Passover to the Last Passover.

On Saturday, we watch all Passion movies with a Resurrection day theme or a Christmas theme and spend the day playing games and having fun.

On Sunday, we go to church, and have a big meal afterward, and have another family day with movies and games.

New Years Eve.
Family fun day. We play games and watch family movies until past midnight. We have a toast with Holiday 'Wine' and make a variety of food to incorporate a favorite of everyone.

Valentine's Day
We have a 'scavenger hunt'. I create a poetic 'clue' that will lead the seeker to the next clue until they follow all the clues that will eventually lead them to a single large gift. Each child will get a number of clues based on their ages. Clues are something like, "Round and round and round I go, if you want it dry you throw, right into me and you will see, pull it out and dry it'll be". Some harder some easier. The children wait all year long for our Valentines Day Scavenger Hunt.

Flag Day
Education fun about flags where we make flags and go over all the ones from our nations past through now. And go over proper respect and treatment of the flag

Forth of July
Pack up a picnic lunch/supper and head downtown to the waterfront. Spend all day in the fountains playing in the water then watch the fire works. We also celebrate the Birthday of the Country then.

Birthdays.
Everyone gets a 'party' on their actual birthday. It must include a cake of some sort (we have had ice cream cakes, cheese cakes, PB&J cakes, as well as regular cakes). Each cake decorated to fit the persons interest or personality (so no just plain frosted cakes).
The Birthday person gets all their favorite foods that day as well as a 'No Chore Day'.

Gabbie's Birthday
We have a big celebration on Gabbie's Birthday to remember her. Everything is decorated in pink. Her color.

That's all I can think of at this moment, but I know there are others I am missing.

[amydawnsmommy]

Originally Posted by katheek77

Saturday mornings...ever since we knew our numbers (or could match), on Saturday mornings, Mom would set out one of those individual boxes of cereal, a banana or something like that, and a cup of milk on the lowest shelf of the fridge. We could watch cartoons. We could NOT wake up Mom and Dad until the numbers on the real clock and the one they made matched unless it was an emergency...LOL...usually 830 or 900. We loved it...and they got some extra sleep.

One of Katie's gifts each Christmas is a donation. Last year, it was for an organization that helps Russian orphans. This year, who knows, but I like that tradition.

What a great idea for Mom & Dad to get some rest!!!!

Giving a donation each Christmas from Katie is an awesome idea!
Here's a donation suggestion for you: PBSO (Perinatal Bereavement Services Ontario) an organization that helps to support families through the death of their baby. This is their website: http://www.pbso.ca/ :

[amydawnsmommy]

Originally Posted by LankyLizards

Oh, here's a strange one. Every year since my grandmother passed away four years ago, my aunt, mother, and I go to visit her grave on her birthday and eat cupcakes and sing "Happy Birthday" (quietly).

I hope to start a lot of traditions with DD, probably starting this year (she's almost two). This thread is giving me great ideas.

I don't think that's a strange tradition! It's a nice way to remember your grandmother!

I'm glad this thread is giving you some good ideas, it's given me some too!

[Coco_Hikes]

Great thread! I am sure to steal a few from other posters (love the four Christmas gifts idea, as well as the underwear drawer idea, among others).

Some of our family traditions are:

Weekly:
*Watching Sunday Morning (CBS) together. This is the only TV we watch now (it's educational!), and we try to make a big tasty breakfast before the show starts at 9 am (well, not so much since Snurpee came along...). I or my husband used to run out for a copy of the Sunday NY Times also, something I hope to get back into once our girly is older.

*Date Night--now Family Date Night. Usually involves going out to a cheap, earlybaby dinner somewhere or getting take-out. A special treat for me now that I do most of the weekday dinnertime cooking (I was lucky--my husband did it before I became a SAHM). Sometimes we rent a movie.

Monthly:
*We take a photograph of the baby with a bear her maternal grandmother gifted to her. We'll be up to month 13 this Friday and plan to continue to document her growth this way. That bear is starting to shrink, I swear.

Holiday/seasonal:
*September apple picking. Just thinking about the apple cider donuts at the orchard store where we go yearly is making me drool right now! Also, I make a pie from the apples that we bring to Thanksgiving (yes, it's frozen, but still homemade).

*Autumn Sunday cooking extravaganzas. My husband used to spend much of this day creating an elaborate dinner. I have to work on him to get back into this habit this fall!

*Day after Thanksgiving hike. We take advantage of (formerly both of us) having that Friday off from work to get in some much-needed time in the woods. A few times my brothers have come up to hike with us, sharing in the fun.

*Sinterklaas Eve (December 5). This is one of our newer traditions and one of my favorites. My husband's family has Dutch roots, and couple years back I decided we needed to work some ethnic fun into our lives. We make a Dutch meal and baked treats and before going to bed we put carrots in a pair of clogs (from my mom's trip to NL many years ago). Another fun part of this holiday is writing poems for each family member that are sort of teasing, but in a good-natured way.

*Christmas lights. Growing up, this had to be my favorite family tradition. Sitting in the back of the car all bundled up and warm looking out at all the different ways people lit up their homes and yards for Christmas while listening to holiday music is so enchanting to a child--even to adults. We lived near the water, and some folks even lit up their sailboats--just gorgeous reflecting against the river or bay. This was before the era of those giant blow-up lawn things, so I've been a little disappointed the past few years as those have grown in popularity. But we will continue this traditoin with our daughter nonetheless.

*New Years Day pancake breakfast. I can't remember if we actually did this this past January ( ) or just talked about starting this tradition. I'm sure we will make 'em on 1/1/08 since we have been on a pancake kick over the past few months!

Anniversary/Birthdays
*Since we got married while on vacation (weddingmoon?), to celebrate our anniversary we go away. The rule is that we have to leave the state, although last year I was super pregnant so we spent a few days in Cape May (NJ). This year we went a week later because of a scheduling conflict and ended up celebrating Mothers Day while on vacation--what a treat!

*Birthdays are a big deal to me, but we don't have any sent habits for celebrating them other than making sure a cake is involved and that no one (who works outside the home) goes to work on anyone else's birthday. For our girly's first birthday last month we took her to the ocean for the first time--a real treat for my husband and I, who both have winter birthdays. We need to come up with some more meaningful birthday traditions, so I'm taking notes from other posters.

[amydawnsmommy]

Originally Posted by Coco_Hikes

Great thread! I am sure to steal a few from other posters (love the four Christmas gifts idea, as well as the underwear drawer idea, among others).

Some of our family traditions are:

Weekly:
*Date Night--now Family Date Night. Usually involves going out to a cheap, earlybaby dinner somewhere or getting take-out. A special treat for me now that I do most of the weekday dinnertime cooking (I was lucky--my husband did it before I became a SAHM). Sometimes we rent a movie.

Monthly:
*We take a photograph of the baby with a bear her maternal grandmother gifted to her. We'll be up to month 13 this Friday and plan to continue to document her growth this way. That bear is starting to shrink, I swear.

*Day after Thanksgiving hike. We take advantage of (formerly both of us) having that Friday off from work to get in some much-needed time in the woods. A few times my brothers have come up to hike with us, sharing in the fun.

*Sinterklaas Eve (December 5). This is one of our newer traditions and one of my favorites. My husband's family has Dutch roots, and couple years back I decided we needed to work some ethnic fun into our lives. We make a Dutch meal and baked treats and before going to bed we put carrots in a pair of clogs (from my mom's trip to NL many years ago). Another fun part of this holiday is writing poems for each family member that are sort of teasing, but in a good-natured way.

*Christmas lights. Growing up, this had to be my favorite family tradition. Sitting in the back of the car all bundled up and warm looking out at all the different ways people lit up their homes and yards for Christmas while listening to holiday music is so enchanting to a child--even to adults. We lived near the water, and some folks even lit up their sailboats--just gorgeous reflecting against the river or bay. This was before the era of those giant blow-up lawn things, so I've been a little disappointed the past few years as those have grown in popularity. But we will continue this traditoin with our daughter nonetheless.

Your ideas are wonderful and very creative!