Traditions
One of my favorite perks of being a mom is fulfilling the acronym MOM – Maker of Memories. I love to create and honor traditions, to infuse my kids’ childhoods with magic, and to capture moments in time. Holidays are the perfect example of all three loves.
Ever since Megan was a wee one, we have had my mother-in-law over for Halloween. We do a tag-team sort of thing, where we take turns going out with the kids, and then being the person who hands out the treats when the trick-or-treaters come to our door. It’s a simple thing, but it means a lot to all of us – which we found out this year, when the combo of a rainstorm and strep throat put a damper on the night and we cancelled the evening.
For Thanksgiving we have several traditions that we uphold. One of my favorites is the Thanksgiving Feast at Thomas’ school: a full Thanksgiving meal celebrated with all the students and families. There’s also the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, when my father-in-law brings over the turkey, and we enjoy a Chinese food lunch. (Yinking – yum!) Thanksgiving itself is full of all the familiar comfort foods that most people have on the table – the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, rolls, and sweet potato dish – but our personal favorite is the homemade cranberry sauce. (It calls for fresh cranberries, orange juice, sugar, port wine, and orange zest. It is heavenly!)
Christmas is a bonanza of traditions. We have the tree decorations – one for each year for each child, plus a multitude I’ve collected over the years. We have countdowns and advent calendars – nine by my last count, including a quilt with pockets that we slip cards into, describing a family experience like driving to see Christmas lights or watching a classic Christmas movie together; a digital countdown that includes days, hours and minutes; and cookie-shaped magnets for the fridge. We choose an angel from the Giving Tree and find a gift to make someone else’s Christmas special. We make Christmas cookies from my Grandma Montgomery’s special sugar cookie recipe with the kids’ cousins from that side of the family. We set out a couple of those cookies for Santa (along with a beer, as a family joke) and every year Santa enjoys the treat as he leaves a present for each kid and fills our stockings.
The Christmas stockings themselves are poster children for tradition. Every year Santa brings a calendar for each member of our family. The kids’ calendars are usually current interests – Harry Potter or Dr. Who or the Disney movie Inside Out, for example – and my calendar is a big-print planning wall calendar. Matt always gets a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit calendar, which hangs in the garage above his workbench. Both my stocking and Matt’s include a dozen or so chip clips for the kitchen (to replace the previous year’s, as they have gone missing or deteriorated) and kitchen towels (for the same reason as the chip clips). Matt’s stocking has packets of gravy (which he loves, and I don’t), and some specialty condiment like chimichurri sauce or an exotic mustard. My stocking has had a scratch-off lottery ticket or two for many years, and Matt’s often contains a new long lighter wand for the barbeque/birthday candles. The kids can expect to find new toothbrushes, gloves and gum along with small toys like juggling balls or a new card game. About two-thirds of the items are wrapped; each family member’s paper is different, but all have Santa print. (The kids’ under-the-tree gift from Santa is wrapped in the same paper as their stockings.)
Another wonderful tradition we keep is making calendars for all the extended family, using photos of the kids from the previous year. I use the week before Thanksgiving to go through the computer files and upload the pictures, selecting moments from throughout the year to correspond to the month they’ll represent. Each year as I go through the pictures, I take a moment to be grateful for my family and all the special moments we’ve shared … which may be my favorite tradition of all.
Juliana LeRoy wears many hats, including wife, mother, paraeducator and writer. She can be spotted around Windsor gathering material, or reached at ml****@so***.net. blog at http://mamabear.pnn.com.
