Traditions

I'm thankful for traditions, especially this time of year when they are in full swing.  

This is from our annual, passing out treats to our neighbors.

Morgan demonstrating how she'll give them to the people she sees.

Kids need traditions...I believe that.  They love having familiar things to look forward to every year, month or even week.  And I love that they get excited for sometimes the littlest of things.  That's the joy of traditions...they don't have to be elaborate to make an impact.

I love doing things that my parents did when I was growing up.  Like my mom hiding Annalee Elves around the house before Christmas.  Sometimes we would discover a new one.  I'm doing the same with my girls...we have around 6 so far...and every year I'll hide a new one for them to find on Christmas day.  My mom would also have a scavenger hunt for my brothers and me on Christmas day.  We would all be racing through the house chasing clue after clue until we finally found our big prize.  One year the gift was buried in the sand of my parents' big bird cage in the backyard.  I guess you start running out of places to hide the gift and they had to start getting creative!  And of course the opening one present on Christmas Eve tradition I loved so much.  It was always something cozy to wear that night.  I've copied all of these for my girls.

Most of these traditions lots of people do...I know.  But that's what I love...traditions can be copied.  I don't feel the need to come up with something super unique...do what you did growing up or copy other families.  And in some cases a tradition will just happen on it's own when you didn't even think about it.

Ryan's mom would make snow ice cream every time it snowed when he was growing up in Virginia.  One day I came home from some errands after a big snow fall and I found Ryan in the kitchen making...you got it...snow ice cream for the girls!  And just for the record...I have NEVER seen Ryan with a mixing bowl and wooden spoon before.  Him "cooking" in the kitchen...it was a sight to see!  The ice cream turned out great! And now every time it snows the bowl goes outside to catch the flakes to make snow ice cream.

Friday evening we did our annual drive to look at Christmas lights around town.  Except this time I switched things up and had all the kids get there jammies on, slippers, blankets and they even brought a stuffed animal on the drive.  I copied that idea from someone else...totally brilliant!  Not sure why I didn't think of that one myself!  The little ones fell asleep while driving around and it was so much easier to scoop them up and put them straight to bed.

I know that most of the traditions will have to be modified as the kids get older.  Not sure they'll be into getting into their jammies and driving around to look at Christmas lights when they're teenagers.  But I'll do my best to keep them going for as long as I can!