it's a family tradition

Traditions are the BEST. You've figured out by now how much I love routines. I love knowing when things are going to happen or when I should do them. And traditions are routines, they're just happy little routines all dressed up!

Traditions have a way of brightening up your day/week/month.

For our family, traditions typically fall under two umbrellas: casual traditions and holiday traditions.

Casual Traditions
These are those traditions that happen separately from a major holiday. Some things may fall more under routine in this category, but since it's something that usually brings joy, I think of them as traditions.

Choosing traditions doesn't have to be a big elaborate thing. Two traditions stand out in my childhood, right off the bat. One is pizza and movie night on Friday nights. I promise you, it's exactly as it sounds. We'd order pizza, eat in the living room, and alway watch a movie. It was something special because every other night, dinner was eaten in the kitchen or dining room. We had a special treat to look forward to after a long week.

The other childhood tradition is something so small, I don't know if it was done intentionally or if it's remembered by anyone other than me. Every Sunday morning, right before we pulled out of the garage to leave for church, my sister and  I would each get a wintergreen Tic Tac. Every. Single. Sunday. Just one. I would take my itty bitty Tic Tac, hold it in my mouth, and savor it as long as I could, competing with my previous records to see how long I could make it last before it dissolved completely on my tongue. Usually by the time we passed the cemetery, it was gone. It was such a tiny thing, but every time I see wintergreen Tic Tacs in the store, I think about those Sunday mornings of my childhood.

As our daughter grows older and more aware, there are traditions that we are beginning to implement for our family, both big and small. Some of these include:

• picnics in the living room on rainy days
• annual family vacations (often to the beach)
• extended family dinners
• specials songs for each kid (Addy gets You Are My Sunshine almost every night)
• birthday interviews (my mom did these and I LOVE seeing my own answers as a child)
• sharing your high and low of your day at bedtime (Austen and I talk about this at bedtime, and it's such a great way to dive deeper into your day. I hear the Obamas do this!)
• writing favorite recipes down on recipe cards. Much easier to access, and it's easy to tell the most loved dishes because the cards are well-used. There's something special about hand-written recipes. 
• family walks. I like to walk with Austen or with my dad, since my parents live down the road. We take the baby and the dogs and get a chance to chat!
• annual family photo books detailing the main events of the past year
• annual family photos. We had photos taken for Addy's first birthday and our amazing photographer took photos of the entire extended family as well. They're a treasure to look at and something I want to continue each year, though preferably earlier than mid-November from now on. I seriously can't recommend this enough. We have them displayed throughout our house, Addy loves looking at them, and it's one of the only times we were able to get pictures of ALL of us together.

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Holiday/Seasonal Traditions
I place a high value on literacy in our home. We have themed books for all holidays/seasons that I rotate through Addy's bookshelves. To me, this is much more important than holiday decor or seasonal food, because it is a contribution to her love of reading.
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• New Year
  • Every New Year's Day, we go to a fish fry with all of my dad's fishing buddies. He enjoys having his family there and it's a fun way to catch up with their families.
• Easter
  • As a kid, my parents left a 'bunny trail' through the dining room to our Easter baskets, made of flour. I'm pretty sure this happened even when I came home from college. It's a cute way to add some fun to the wakeup on Easter!
• Birthdays
  • ​Birthday celebrations are typically up to the birthday boy or girl. We blew up close to a hundred balloons for Addy's birthday this year and it was a hit! We'll be doing that for all of our babies' first birthdays. 
  • One special thing I always look forward to around my birthday is a night with all my girlfriends. We go out to eat and then visit a local escape room. It's a rare occasion when we can all get together, and it's something fun we don't typically do otherwise. 
• Anniversary
  • Austen and I have been going to Bardstown, KY, to ride a dinner train for our anniversary for the past few years (pre-Covid). It's a nice meal and experience all in one. We get to know the people we sit with, and the food is delicious!
  • This year, I plan to begin asking for a nice piece of jewelry for our anniversary. Most of my jewelry is of the Target variety. I'd like to have pieces I can wear dressed up and eventually pass down to our children as part of their heritage.
• Halloween
  • ​​Family costumes, of course. For Addy's first Halloween we planned on a Pooh-themed ensemble, but ended up just dressing her as a kangaroo (since she's our Roo). Next year, hopefully in a slightly more post-Covid world, we'll go all out!
• Thanksgiving
  • ​My sister has started hosting Thanksgiving each year, so knowing where we go each year is a small joy.
  • Family members have traditional dishes we each provide. Those have become 'our' recipes! 
• Christmas
  • This Christmas I worked to collect as many kid's Christmas books as I can. I plan to begin wrapping 25 for each December as a countdown to Christmas. We'll open one a day to read.
  • Matching family pajamas
  • We host Christmas Eve and my parents host Christmas day. We all take a small role in hosting holidays, so it's never too much stress on one home

You might notice not all of the holidays are represented. We've never tried to force a tradition just for the sake of having a tradition. Austen and I have celebrate the 4th of July differently for the past 7 years. We've gone kayaking, watched Star Wars, spent the day in Bardstown with friends.. We've yet to hold onto a specific tradition, and that's okay with us!