Family Traditions

Day #7 - List some of your family traditions. Which ones are your favorite and why?

I grew up with lots of fun traditions in my family. We try and do something fun every holiday and make it special.

Birthdays a big deal in my family. It is the one day a year when we got singled out from the bunch and got spoiled. Our parents never had a lot of money so they would give us lots of little gifts, things like our favorite candy bar, drink or gum. All the siblings would try and find something little at the grocery store or dollar store to give and we would gather together for a homemade cake in our favorite flavor decorated in some fun way. Mom was also adamant about having our birthday dinner which consisted of our very favorite meal.

My birthday was fun cause it was in the middle of the summer. That meant that my meal could consist of things the other kids couldn't get like watermelon and corn on the cob. The entree was always a bacon and tomato sandwich on toast, hold the lettuce. Always. :)

Another of my favorite family traditions include singing together as a family on Christmas Eve. We gather at my Grandma Dorothy's house and we sing in 4 part harmony our favorite songs like "White Christmas", "Silent Night", etc.  When we were younger we would gather around Grandma or my Mom who would play the piano, but in later years we got pretty good without the piano.

Our traditions are special because they involve gathering our large brood together and having the time of our lives on a shoe-string budget. Nothing will ever replace the fun we had during our midnight conversations around the kitchen table, the kids running to the piano whenever Mom sat down to play, the BBQ's on Memorial Day, and annual camping trip.

As I grow older and have my own  little family, I hope that we can keep the magic of those traditions alive for our own children so that they too can delight in the laughter and love that comes with siblings and cousins.