Giving Thanks for Traditions

At my bridal shower, my soon-to-be sister-in-law gave me this advice: “Keep the traditions going; they are very important to Andy.” At the time I didn’t really understand the impact of traditions. My family didn’t have any real rituals that I could think of. But they obviously meant a lot to my husband, so we carried on some of his family’s traditions. Every Christmas, we baked and frosted countless sugar cookies. Even when I was recovering from surgery and barely had the energy to eat cookies, let alone frost them! But it was tradition, so I (begrudgingly) went along with it.

It wasn’t until I had children of my own that I understood the importance of traditions; they give young and old alike a sense of comfort and security in an every changing world. Sometimes change can be scary—like the first time a toddler encounters an automatic flushing toilet! Traditions make things less scary. This summer, as I watched my three kids look forward to getting Grandma M’s mail every day and take such pleasure in helping Grandpa M fill up the bird feeders each week, I realized that even small, everyday tasks can become much anticipated traditions.   

I started thinking back to my own childhood again and realized that my family did have quite a few traditions: like the plate of frosted graham crackers that we got to eat on our birthday BEFORE it was time for cake or watching Jazz games with my Grandma M. and eating the gummy bears that she kept on hand just for me.

Sometimes, breaking traditions once in a while can be even more memorable than carrying them on. For example, while vacationing in Southern California over Thanksgiving one year my family ended up eating Pizza Hut pizza for dinner instead of the traditional Thanksgiving feast. My parents told us we could choose any restaurant we wanted and we picked Pizza Hut! We still laugh about that to this day.

This Thanksgiving, with an attitude of gratitude, I am giving thanks for traditions, big and small! It has been so much fun creating our own family traditions with Andy and the kids: annual family vacations, giving goodbye bones at the door, family themed costumes on Halloween and Sunday hikes.

As I mentioned before, we have also kept the cookie tradition alive and the kids get so excited to help Mommy and (especially) Daddy when cookie day arrives. They even have their own little rolling pin.

Another tradition that we kept going was having soufflé for breakfast every Christmas. Andy’s family finds this funny because as a child, he refused to eat soufflé. During this phase his Mom cooked two Christmas breakfasts: one for Andy and one for the rest of the family. Cooking two breakfasts is a tradition I hope I never have to duplicate! I do hope, however, that my children carry on some of our traditions when they have families of their own and even invite me over for Christmas breakfast when I'm old and grey(er).

Now it's your turn. What are some of your family traditions? I'm always looking for new ideas!