I don’t decorate for every holiday. There! I have a few friends who are so cute and have decorations for every holiday on the calendar. As soon as one season or holiday ends, another begins with its very own decorations! It's fun. I know my kids would like it. I have been feeling really guilty lately…like I should be decorating to help create more traditions in my family (but I really despise buying/getting out/taking down/storing). It’s really peer pressure, I know. I wouldn't think twice if everyone wasn't doing it.After attending a workshop last Saturday on family traditions I started to get worried again: Am I creating sufficient traditions for my kids? When they’re older will they be warped because I didn’t decorate for St. Patrick’s Day? I did make an all green dinner one year...mostly Scott was just grossed out by the green noodles!
I decided I needed to evaluate what I am doing to help create family unity and fun through traditions. Here’s a few I came up with that we’re doing now:
Wheat Bread Shapes. Whenever I make wheat bread (a couple times a month in the winter) I make four loaves and two “shaped” bread loaves with my Pampered Chef Valtrompia tubes. We have a flower, star and heart and I let the kids decide which two shapes they want. This is the first bread we eat hot right out of the oven. We usually eat it all right away, and sometimes it doesn’t even last for Scott to see our shapes when he gets home.
Bedtime Reading. I love to read to the kids at night. Last summer I read almost every American Girl book to the girls. Jared likes Magic Tree House books right now. We just finished the first Harry Potter book too. I know the kids love it too. They are always begging me for another chapter, and when they see I am wavering on whether or not to read more they quickly chime in “I’ll brush your hair.” They’ve got me pegged—I almost always fall prey to this.
Sunday Walks. Last year our church started at 1:00 which made it hard to go on our Sunday walk. We are so happy to have 9:00am church to continue one of our favorite traditions with the kids.
Sunday Treats. Always, always make a treat for Sunday!
Family Movie Night. Every once in awhile, whether as a reward or because there’s no school the next day, we have Family Movie Night. We rent a movie and get treats…licorice (of course!) and gummy bears or worms are staples. Last time I forgot Whoppers not realizing this was also an important part of the night—I won’t forget next time. We watch the movie together with the kids all wrapped up in their sleeping bags. The girls always make tickets for the show, a movie play list and a concession price list and money for us to use. I think they have more fun creating a “movie theater” appearance than the actual movie. Really though, I think it’s the free reign on the treats that the kids like the best. Occasionally I have to remind them to listen to their bodies and stop before they get sick.
I love the excitement my kids have whenever it’s Family Movie Night. It shows you that kids don’t need elaborate and expensive activities to have a good time.
Decorating Sugar Cookies. We usually do this around a holiday. Valentine’s, Easter, Halloween. It’s a HUGE mess, but the kids always love it. And I do love my mom’s recipe for the softest sugar cookies ever.
Hiking. When the weather is nice Scott is always so good to suggest a family hike in the mountains. Everyone always loves this, and the kids have been asking lately to do it again soon.
Tumbling/Wrestling and now Football. Scott is the most fun dad ever. The kids could all be good gymnasts with the practice they get tumbling through the air with Scott. They also love to wrestle him and he’s recently taught them living room football. I love watching!
Planting/Working in the garden.
Shepherd’s Dinner & Bells. I love our Christmas Eve tradition of dressing as shepherds, sitting on a blanket and eating foods that the shepherds may have eaten (we stretch this a little). We always have pomegranates, hummus and pita, stew, cheese and crackers and this year we made flat bread (smashed Rhodes rolls that we cooked on a griddle.) The kids always add a little more each year and this year we found ourselves following the star that appeared at the top of our staircase to find Mary and the baby Jesus. And a new tradition…the Bells!! I love the Bells.
Whew! I’m relieved I could come up with a few off the top of my head! I have a few new ideas too. This year I want to focus more on the meaningful things I can do within my family to help create some fun memories.
12 comments:
I loved reading about all your family traditions! Who cares about the decorations...your kids will remember all the things you did together the most!
The traditions you wrote about are much more important than the decorations. I can't tell you one decoration we had in our house but I can tell you about making cookies, having family dinners and playing "racko and sorry" together. You are a great Mom!
I think you can be assured that the traditions you are creating for your family are much more lasting - and a lot more fun - than a few ceramic, plastic,or paper items set on display every holiday! I wish I was more like you....;)
Sarah, I only decorate for Christmas & Halloween and every year I even whine about doing that. I love your traditions. I have got to do the shepherd dinner. We always go to out to a Mexican Dinner on Christmas eve, but I may make it a tradition to do it on December 23rd.
One more comment. I didn't read the part about reading bedtime stories carefully enough before. Sarah, my kids do the exact same thing. When they want me to keep reading, they promise to do beauty shop while I read. I love it. I always fall for this tactic. That is so funny.
I better not let my kids read this...then they'll know how much they are missing out on. You have so many neat things that you do with your family. I love the Shepherd's dinner. How clever.
"Ditto" on all of your comments. Those are great traditions.
You are awesome and do great things with your cute kids! I've been decorating for holidays so long that I don't remember why I started. . . I love it though! I need to be better at creating lasting memories and you are a good example!
That was inspiring for all of us. Thank you for sharing that it really made me think of the memories I hope we are making. I think what you are doing with your kids will have the best effect because it doesn't make a stressed out mom it is truly fun for everyone. Thanks for this great entry.
That is awesome that you wrote all of those down. I need to do that. I am afraid my kids are going to think our family traditions are blogging and eating mac and cheese!
I'm going to have to check out those "treehouse" books. Maybe Sam will like them too. I love those old picutres showing that you've been keeping some of those traditions for years. How cute!
You are awesome, Sarah. That family memory class got me thinking too, that I can probably be more conscientious about using more of my time to creating fun family memories. But this post helped me remember that we already have a lot of fun things that we do, so I shouldn't feel discouraged either. Anyway, thanks for sharing. Great idea to record the fun family traditions you have! (btw, I've finally got my blog partially updated. at least, up through Christmas. . . I have a long way to go, I know.)
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