When I was growing up my family developed traditions not only around the holidays but other times during the year as well. I'm not sure if we, as kids, realize how much we come to love them. Now that I'm older I can look back and see the familial patterns, and I smile when I think of them.
I used to love Saturday mornings. Especially in the Spring in North Missouri. My dad would start mowing the yard early in the morning, and my sisters and I would play outside all day long. I think there's a picture somewhere of me in pigtails sitting on top of the swingset we had in our backyard. We weren't afraid of anything back then. Then my dad would invariably get the patio and grill ready for what we would have for dinner later in the day, and that is why to this day I love the smell of charcoal as the coals are turning white. I watched him clean fish that he had caught while out on his boat at one of the local lakes, I didn't really participate too much in the cleaning as much as just the observation of it all. They're squishy and I couldnt bear to look at their open eyes. But I will say this, the dinner they created was absolutely delicious.
We were pretty creative in thinking of fun things to do, especially when the weather turned even warmer. We had a hose with a sprayer on the end of it, so we wound a rubber band around the handle of the sprayer so it would have a continous blast of water going, and then tossed the hose over a tree branch. Voila! A sprinkler you could run under. How fun is that?
I know my sister Melissa (she's the one on the left in the photo, circa 1975) will love me for including this one: we used to play inside moving boxes. I mean the really big wardrobe type, that we could climb inside of, cut out an opening in the front that went halfway down, and then pretend we had our own business that you could visit at that window. We did this in the front yard, which completely cracks me up that we never thought it might look strange to the neighbors and passersby.
They say your friends are your chosen family, and I couldn't agree more. With my family spread out in between coasts, my friends are who I can see more often. Today my chosen family and I are going to see Silent House, I think there is only one of us that doesn't care for scary movies, so he'll be waiting for us after the movie to move along into the tradition we've created over the last few years, Joes Crab Shack. What better way to discuss a movie than over crab legs!
Winter seems to be lingering in Dallas, at least for today. Overcast and chilly makes for a great day to see a movie. Of course Monday it's supposed to be 80 degrees. Welcome to North TX.
Do you have favorite traditions that you still participate in even today?
See you soon friend,
Tiffany
PS I think I have some new friends that have heard about Breakfast At Tiffanys. Some ducks were quacking loud enough outside my window to wake me up this morning. I SWEAR I heard one of them say, "dude just keep quacking, she'll feed us if she wakes up. Trust me". He was right.
4 comments:
Do you know I feel a little bit traditionless in the strictest sense? I don't do very many things exactly like I did as a child, even if I loved them that way. When I got married, Mom passed to me a new tradition she'd settled on in light of the changes marriage would bring to holidays, and she makes new traditions again whenever she needs to based on the seasons of our lives. And somehow that's what stuck the most - the flexibility.
Spring in NE Missouri - yesterday after school, Jared and Jenna were playing basketball (I have to "back up the car" so they have room) and Julia was painting rocks with watercolors on the front porch. There is also a sidewalk-chalked "Wellcome" right in front of my door. I just love being able to turn the thermostat to "off", open the windows, and hear the kids playing outside :)
I think there are many, many traditions I carry on from Mom - just one of which is filling in the "from" on Christmas tags with fictional characters that the recipient will relate to. Never will forget when I got gifts from "Ariel" and "Beauty" - instead of Belle LOL. Thats what inspired my gift to you this year to be from "JOE JR!!" HA! Its just fun. Honey always did this too, we got gifts from Dasher and Father Time and even this year, I got one from "Gabriel" - some of Nanny's angels. LOVE IT!!
Oh and I still have a gift tag that says its from "Santa Ruf and Betty Claus" :) I think that was on the Sawyer Brown tickets (didn't Michael and Kenton go to that?)
Also, using a tag I got this year from her as a bookmark, its from "A Wise Old Owl" ;)
And just last night we were talking about mom hiding the eggs all over and the Easter baskets. We would find a stray chocolate egg weeks after Easter :)
Seren I love that flexibility you speak of, it leaves the door wide open for new things.
Sara I know EXACTLY what you mean, mom always made every holiday special, especially when she sprinkled her humor all around it (Wise old owl LOL) and yes Kenton and Michael went to that concert, or wait, was it Mary and Kenton and not Michael? I can't remember! sigh. (lol)
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