I grew up in a family steeped in tradition. We made gingerbread men cookies for the Christmas tree, we sang certain songs on Christmas Eve, we have the same silly jokes that must be said on various occasions....but it was fun. A little annoying to those joining our family, but fun nonetheless. I started trying to count up the traditions my own little family has...good and bad. Here's what I came up with:
*Coronado: On our annual trip to Coronado, our kids have started traditions that they love. They love to have their picture taken in the gazebo of the Del every year. I think Parker came up with this.
(2005)
We also started trying to get cute beach shots at sunset on the beach, but this is about as good as our kids could be for it. The pic at the top of my blog is their best effort....of course, not one with all of us turned out.
(bad pic of kids....2008)
I also take pics of them on the boogie boards at the beach, but this is always a challenge before they become sand monsters....
(2005)
*This is another tradition....the BYU/Utah or Superbowl glutenous feast. Bill requires certain food for these games. It consists of Vanilla Cream Soda, mozerella sticks, peanut M&M's, onion dip, and wienies. It's a good this he doesn't have time to watch too much football.
*Every mother's or father's day, the kids love to make breakfast in bed. It really isn't the thrill that it sounds like....at least on my end. I usually have to wake up Bill to tell him he has to get started on it or we will never make it to church. I secretly shower, put on make-up, and do my hair and then pretend to be asleep when they come in, as to not ruin their "surprise". There is no sleeping-in involved.
*On our drive to California every summer, Bill and I must say, "The Meadows" in 2 places....one by an American Fork shopping center and one by a housing development in St. George. We are quoting a line from "So I Married an Axe Murder". We also must listen to B-52's and Moonpools and Catepillars while on a road trip. "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys MUST be played while driving over the Coronado Bridge.
*Bill and I love going to the "Parade of Homes" every August...we call it our "covet date". We love to look at ridiculously big homes.
(me coveting this beautiful scrapbook/craft room)
*Christmas: I give my kids a new Santa ornament every year, usually relating to something they have done in the past year. I plan on giving them all their ornaments when they get married.
*We have done the funnest neighbor gift for the last 7 years.... a mix CD of our favorite Christmas songs. It started out quite simple, but we now are deep into it. We feel a little pressure to do it for the rest of forever....or move. The kids love picking songs.
*We have to cross our hands when we sing Happy Birthday. This is a tradition that we did in my family, but my kids are dead serious about doing it, so I now claim this as my own tradition.
* Our inevitable fight in Disneyland. We usually go for 3 days and it just wouldn't be right if we didn't have some major family argument somewhere on the the 2nd or 3rd day. The pic below is where the most recent fight was...Pirate Island....right before we took this picture. This was also a tradition of mine growing up....cherry cokes/walking brooms/hot Tomorrowland ring a bell to any Newmans?
Anyway, that's all I got right now, but I love to have these written down. I am trying to start a few more traditions of Mom sleeping-in on Saturday or Sunday afternoon naps....can you tell I'm not getting enough sleep? What are some of your traditions????????
10 comments:
I so love your "covet date" and I look forward to your Christmas CD every year! Thank you for having our family on your list! It's the greatest idea ever!
One of the traditions that we have, just called it tradition because we've done it now for years, is holiday brunches. On holidays where we don't have anything special planned, we sleep in and watch movies in the morning and have brunch! The kids love it and it's a big sit down meal like Sunday dinner.
We always see the Temple Square lights on the day after Thanksgiving and take a picture with the lights...
You have some really fun fun ideas!
When we're driving anywhere (but especially through the mountains), we yell "Hay!" whenever we see a farm with hay on it. And when I say we, I mean John and the kids. Usually I'm the one that has totally forgotten about the game, and say "what???" kinda grumpy because they are yelling "hay" at the top of their lungs and I think they are just trying to get my attention... yeah. thats a fun one.
This is such a great post. I loved seeing all of your traditions. I totally remember your mom's gingerbread men cookies and that tree in her basement.
Your Coronado pictures are so darling--You look so good in the one you posted.
The Mother's Day breakfast in bed tradition is so classic with you pretending to be asleep--that is so real life. Sam and I about got divorced this year on Mother's Day because of my absolute insistance that I deserved a two hour nap and somehow the nap got cut into and I was only going to get an hour and fifteen minutes.
One of my favorite traditions is picking out an ornament whenever we go on a trip---usually a Santa.
I need to get Sam on board for the parade of homes. It is totally bad for me to go every year. I just went with my mom and I came home determined to paint my cabinets. Sam isn't speaking to me right now.
I love your Christmas CD's. Last years is still in my CD player in my car and yes I still turn it on!
Some other traditions: Cactus Circle - the obligatory exit we take just outside St. George to drive around a traffic circle featuring desert cacti. This pays homage to Bill who mistakenly took the exit in haste to get to the new Utah In-N-Out Burger.
Speaking of the world's best fast food, it is also tradition to get satisfy the In-N-Out urge with every CA trip.
The 12 days of Christmas
License Plates from all our travel destinations - we need more license plates.
Forgetting to fly the flag on Holidays - we are really good at that.
Dewars Chews - Deluxe Candy/Taffy from Bakersfield
Traditions we need to bringback: Salt Lake Arts Festival - the site of our first date, Moab trip, Park City trip, Jackson WY trip - where we first kissed, The Rain Rule, Star Trek Conventions - because they are too much fun, Milcreek Pipeline trail, & Catalina - where we were engaged.
Tradition to start: Big Play Day for Dad on Saturday before Fathers Day.
I love traditons too! Growing up we sang an extended version of Happy Birthday which anyone joining the family was only taught by repeatedly having to listen to it at family birthday parties. For Valentines day we always have a heart shaped red breakfast and we try to make at least one batch of heart shaped sugar cookies. At Christmas time we go to the live Nativity at Gardner Village and try to bake atleast one German dish, our family favorite is Pfefferneusse (NO idea if I spelled that right....we pronounce it fefernessa, but I know it startes with a PF and ends in an "E").
Love the pictures and the annual pictures at Coronado! I miss California!
Let it just be stated that the Star Trek convention was an accident.....but a definite eye-opener to behold. And sorry, the pipeline ain't happening this year. Something about being WAY pregnant. I went to Jackson last year, you went to Moab a few months ago. See, we had those trips...just not together.
This is a great idea for a post. I love hearing about other people's traditions. I thought of a few that we have.
The annual trip to Jackson Hole:
The men must go to The Jack Dennis store a couple of times each day to look at cool fishing gear, buy flies, try to get the scoop on great fishing spots - even though they know they will never tell you the real good spots because they also run a fishing guide service.
We have places we must fish every year even though we have never caught a fish there.
We must drive though our favorite neighborhood in Jackson and talk about how we would love to own a house in his neighborhood.
Must stop in Kemmerer and stretch our feet...then have the conversation about the first ever JC Penny's.
Must look at the house in La Barge that we love.
Must go to church in Jackson to worship our Savior and Lord, but also to ask the locals for the good fishing spots.
BYU game traditions:
Must go to the home games no matter how life threatening the weather.
We must always meet in the Cougar Club room during half time, even though we have spent the last two hours sitting 6 inches from each other.
-Anne
Hey liz- it was fun to read all your traditions- even the nontraditional ones! I wanted to comment on the Call for Expertise post, but I was afraid you wouldn't see it- so I thought I would leave it here. I;ve planted petunias for several years and I find that slugs and snails absolutely love them. So if they are planted anywhere near bushes or other large plants where slugs and snails can hide during the day- they will come out at night and eat the plants. Also with all this rain, the slugs and snails can be very prolific. But you can get slug and snail bait to sprinkle around your flower beds at hardware stores. Also petunias do a lot better when it is hot. And this concludes Kari's petunia knowledge session!
I think I need to come over on the next BYU/UTah game -- would you let a UTE come over? He He
We buy our kids a Christmas ornament every year too (not of the Santa variety).
We have this fun thing we do on the 24th of July and watch fireworks with some friends. :) No pressure, but it does kind of feel almost like a tradition to my kids. This year we are going to be out of town though -- I think David might have a heart attack!!
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