Family Traditions

   I love listening to people talk about their family traditions for things, especially the holidays. I think it's interesting how each family has their little thing, whether it's Midnight Mass, big meals, a certain decoration, that makes their holiday.
   Some families have no traditions or buck the sense of tradition and if that makes them happy that fine. But to me, tradition isn't holding onto something outdated or failure to create your own...it's holding onto the life that created you and you flex it in with your own new family traditions..and it makes your family "yours"!
    Growing up we always had oranges and peanuts in our stockings. Back then money was tight on Mom and Dad and oranges and peanuts wasn't too expensive, we all ate them and it was easy filler for a stocking. I just thought every house did that (all my cousins got the same thing lol) until I got older and kids talked about expensive items in their stockings...and I thought that was so weird lol So every year we put an orange in Kaya's stocking. She gets a few little things in there she wants (this year a puzzle, candy, a stuffed animal) but nothing huge. The orange to me back then was just normal things and now it keeps me attached to my roots. It's simplicity, it's teaching Kaya that she won't get everything she wants and it passes on a tradition of appreciation. Matter of fact this year she even asked for an orange ;)
    We always hiked out to the woods with my parents to find the right tree. Then we'd laugh as Dad had to pin that Charlie Brown tree to the wall lol EVERY year ;) My brother and I would sit for hours making paper chains, stringing popcorn. It was our garland and decorations back in the day and now it's crafts we do with Kaya. 
   I grew up with huge family meals for Cmas eve and Cmas day. I can still see the dusty farm hats lined up on the back of the couch as we sat down to eat. Us kids eating as fast as we could to get back outside. Excitedly opening gifts of coveralls, winter socks, new gloves..and being just as happy as if it was a huge electronic gift now! We rarely got frivolous items and back then we needed the things we got. 
   Now having my own family I have some of my own traditions. I still carry on the orange thing and I make a pan of cinnamon rolls every Cmas morning and Thanksgiving morning just like my Mamma did ;) for us but we do a few things differently. At first it was hard on me...we just "always" did things that way and it was never an issue on family events etc because we lived on Grandpa W's farm and our neighbors the next ridge over was Grandpa R's farm!!! So family was just THERE. 
   So now we don't trek out in the woods, yet lol, for our tree but I can see that same excited glow from Kaya's eyes, much like mine as a child, when we light up our tree. Special ornaments hang on there just like ours did when we were little. We still laugh and have fun doing it and we do crafts with Kaya all season, all year long! Our meals have changed a bit as for the last two years we've done Cmas eve at home with the passing of Granny...but I know my grandparents are sitting up there in Heaven smiling at the nutty brood they helped create. We get together Cmas day with my Mom's family and now the farm is my Uncle's. We still have the huge meal. We look around the table and see the blessings my grandparents started way back in the day..and we smile at the blessings we still have. 
   We pass on our traditions, our laughter and our love, to the next generation as they play and eat together.
  Steve's family just started this year having Thanksgiving together and it was awesome! I hope it will continue. We normally have Cmas with his mother's side in Dec before the actual holiday but it was understandably different this year but I always enjoying being with them for the holiday too. I'm thankful for everyone that makes memories with Kaya and shares their life with us! 
  I think too many people fret that Cmas has to be "perfect", has to look like what you see on tv or in a magazine. There is no perfect Cmas and you can't fill it up with material items, stress and fretting. Every households Cmas if perfect for them and filling it with love, laughter and memories will make our own children's list of blessings much longer than their memories of what gifts they received ;)