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Monday, November 5, 2007

My Family Traditions (or lack of?)

This week, The Most Humble Housewife (http://blog.humblehousewife.com/) is the host of Fun Monday. She wants to know about our traditions...
"I want to hear about or see a holiday tradition, recipe or event. It can be any holiday you like or that is special to your family. With Thanksgiving and the Winter holidays coming up, those would be especially apt, but anything that is special for your family is fine. If you have pictures - it's a bonus! Whether it's your Mom's famous stuffing recipe, going caroling on Christmas Eve, Diwali dances, or even the inevitability of Great Aunt Polly having one too many brandies and knocking over the Christmas tree - I want to hear about it!!!"
Well, we don't really have any traditions in our family. We used to, when I was growing up, but not so much these days. When I was little, we'd spend Christmas Eve at my Grandpa's house, and a little bit at my "Gommy's" house. Yes, my grandparent's were divorced. Christmas morning, I'd wake up early and go wake up my mom and dad. Mom would get up, but Daddy rarely did. It was ok as long as I didn't have to wait on him to wake up to open presents! After opening the presents, I'd be all excited, waiting for my sister to come over. She got married when I was in the first grade and I idolized her (I still do). She always had the coolest presents for her little sister.
Later, my whole Dad's side of the family would meet over at my Aunt Mary's house for brunch. It was always the same...scrambled eggs, grits, cheese souffle, toast, bacon and sausage. YUMMY! I always had to sit at the "kids" table which sucked. I had no cousins my age. All were (and still are, d'uh) either younger or older by a few years. I guess it was ok. I always had fun.
Now most of my Dad's family is dead or moved far away, so all those traditions of my youth are gone. It's sad, but at least I have good memories.
This has got me thinking that I should try to start a few traditions for my little one. As it is, the only thing we do every year, without fail, is drive around to look at Christmas lights. We always end up at the Clott's house who have always done this HUGE Christmas lighting extravaganza. It is awesome. We usually go there more than once!
But I really need to think about starting some more traditions than that. So thank you very much for this week's topic! You have really given me something to think about :)

11 comments:

Sandy said...

Christmas brunch is a lovely tradition and is easily fit in either before or after the gifts...

Unknown said...

That's so sad that the traditions evaporated, but I think that's what happens when the whole family gets married off. You've always got to do the back & forth thing. I hope today gives you good ideas!

Tiggerlane said...

I'm always having to drag my husband out of bed so the kid can open her presents...he grumbles, and spends half his time nursing his coffee. Maybe we should just let him sleep!

Anonymous said...

I hated the kids table too - because I was older than the rest and always felt so put upon to have to sit there with the little sisters and cousins.

Molly said...

Yes, looking at the lights is a wonderful tradition. We did that when our children were young, and my husband and I do that nowadays.

-Ann said...

Inventing your own traditions should be fun. Make sure you include chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.

-Ann said...

PS - I always hated sitting at the kids table too. Now, I sit there by choice any chance I get. The conversation is way more fun there.

Sayre said...

I felt the same way when tackling this Fun Monday - I need to start some "traditions" for my own son. Now that we're pretty much settled, I need to look around and see what I can do.

Kids' table. We had so many kids in our extended family (most of them in MY family) that we had more than one kids' table. The move to the grownup table was a true rite of passage.

Anonymous said...

Ha-ha! You were stuck at the kid's table!
Me too.

theotherbear said...

I always loved the kids table! Sounds like you'll have fun creating some new traditions from now onwards.

Anonymous said...

Where is the Clott house? I want to take my niece and I have never been!