A Year of Family Traditions

When I started writing about this subject I didn’t believe our family had any traditions. But the more examples I tried to write about the more I realized that we did have some traditions already. I want more traditions. And consistent traditions! I want holiday traditions and birthday traditions. First day of school and last day of school. I want traditions to be a mix of food/fun. The idea of waking up on my birthday looking forward to it seems like such a strange idea, but to have something to look forward to when I go to bed the night before like a delicious and special breakfast. Fantastic!

My childhood traditions were less to do with material things and more to do with each other. At Christmas time there was never a guarantee that there would be anything under the tree, but in the weeks leading up to Christmas we would work on decorating the house together. That time was something I could always look forward to, consistently. Even if life had become crazy, we still had the festive feeling. I want those feelings and memories for my kids.

My hubs has traditions that he talks about too but they are so different than what I grew up with. He had family vacations. That was not something I remember having. I can think of going to Disney Land when I was 5 but not much after that. On the flip side my hubs doesn’t have any food traditions other than what we have started. He knows turkey is traditionally for thanksgiving. The Navy goes that far at least. He says growing up, that home cooked meals weren’t really a memory he had. For his birthday every year I try to give him the option of lasagna or steak. His 2 favorite foods. He usually picks the lasagna. Mostly because my steak game needs a LOT of improvement.

New Years Day

I would like to make it a tradition to spend this day putting up all the holiday decorations. It makes sense since most people have it off anyways. The month of January would be a good time to ‘start fresh’ too and clean out some closets. Make room for the new gifts received without over crowding your life. Clutter causes anxiety. Organization promotes well being. Is that a fact. I don’t know but it’s a personal belief for sure!

Valentines Day

I always used to wake up to a small box of candy and a valentines doll the morning of. Being a kid I was much more appreciative of the chocolate than the doll but that is likely most kids. Yay chocolate. I would like to start a tradition where we cook a nice dinner together as a family and try to make an intricate but not elaborate dessert together. I have never made a souffle before but I would like to try to. I also wouldn’t mind trying my hand at homemade macrons. I think it would be fun to try a new dessert together each year as a family. Making it together and dealing with the wins/fails as they come. We will either learn that some of those fancy looking desserts maybe aren’t so difficult or that even if they look terrible and don’t turn out right, they still taste good. Sometimes things going wrong make a better/funnier later memory anyways.

St. Patrick’s Day

I don’t really have memories associated with this holiday other than at school. You always need to wear green to prevent getting pinched and usually there was a class party with lots of green food. I fully support making a green dinner every year for this day. I could keep is simple, hello pesto. Or get creative with the foods to get them green. Color is always fun.

Easter

Decorating eggs is fun, I would like to try this year using natural dyes on the eggs. AKA beets to dye them red (ish?) I am not sure. Every time I have ever dyed eyes, I have gotten the little dye pellets like most other people. But I like eating the eggs after as egg salad or deviled eggs. The egg white are always tinted. How much of that dye is getting into my food. I would feel better about ingesting a natural color rather than a synthetic one. So starting now this will be an easy one to start implementing. Easter dinner I don’t have any traditions. I believe ham is a common dinner choice. I am not against it, but it isn’t love for me. I love ham, however I don’t love it as a main dish. A slice of ham sure. But eh. I love ham in soups and breakfast scrambles and such. But it’s not a star! The verdict is still out for an ideal Easter dinner.

Mother’s Day

I don’t feel this is a ‘dinner’ holiday. Brunch on the other hand… I don’t know the perfect menu. I will happily volunteer my tummy to the cause though.

Father’s Day

Father’s day feels more like a grilling holiday. If dad’s and setting things on fire don’t go hand in hand, I don’t know what does. Probably super loaded gourmet type burgers if I had to guess. Avocado, bacon, homemade sauce. Mmmm.

Independence Day

We intermittently celebrate this one. It depends whats going on really. We try to go see fireworks. Good food and good friends make this holiday the real treat. Something grilled to eat. Too hot to cook. BBQ ribs are usually a hit with my homemade sauce. Can’t wait to start sharing recipes. I love my BBQ sauce recipe. Sweet, spicy, savory, tangy, delicious.

Halloween

I love doing family costumes where we all match. I think it is fun for us and fun for the kiddo when we all participate. We have done a year where we were Nintendo characters which was a lot of fun. I feel like this tradition may ebb and flow as the kids grow but that is okay. Life is always changing after all.

Thanksgiving

Turkey! I usually make more food than should be allowed. But the tradition we have held on to since our first year together was to open up our home to those who do not have a place to go for the holidays. We usually have family. But we get coworkers too. I have made to-go boxes for people to grab on the way to work. I have been “forwarded” people looking for a meal. I have made food for mamas stuck in the hospital after having baby (it was enough for the new dad too) it is thanksGIVING after all. And cooking a little more when I already have a ton of cooking to do doesn’t make much of a difference for me, but can change someones whole day to have a home cooked thanksgiving meal.

Christmas

I would like to continue the 4 gift rule. 1 want, 1 need, 1 outfit, 1 book. I would like to begin decorating. This year with the help of my neighbor was the first year we have decorated for Christmas and baby bear loved it!! So I will never not decorate again. I would like to make a huge family event out of it someday. Make some homemade cocoa in the crock pot, maybe a cinnamon braid in the oven with quiche. Hanging up the decorations while reminiscing what the years endeavors held. Make a day of it. Maybe add some of the holiday baking to that day too. Then everyone can splurge on the cookies while they are still warm from the oven. Smells and tastes trigger some of the strongest memories. Like Thanksgiving we typically open our home Christmas day for dinner and I would like to continue that. I would like to hone my menu though. I aspire to someday pass my recipes down to my family and friends. So getting my staples is important to me.

Birthdays

I would like to do a traditional birthday breakfast and dinner. I think rainbow sprinkle pancakes for breakfast (unless the birthday person wants something else) and birthday dinner of their choosing. I alternate between 2 things I want for dinner. I want to go out or I want kielbasa casserole. Those are my birthday dinners of choice. Always. So basically I don’t feel like cooking on my birthday or I wan’t kielbasa casserole bad enough to make it. Hubs usually wants Lasagna as that is his favorite dish. We try a new macaroni and cheese recipe to celebrate our first daughters birthday. And as for baby bear…the verdict is still out.

Now that this is written down I can start making small adjustments each celebration in this upcoming year to work towards these aspirations for myself and my family. Things always seem more achievable when written down because you can break things up in to steps. This year new years day will be spent helping my grandparents take down their Christmas decorations. Valentines plans will commence soon. Suddenly I can see why stores put out holiday garb so early. Looking forward to Valentines day already and December isn’t even finished.

-Cait