what are your family traditions?

[tonksy]

I had an interesting conversation with a friend last night. She is Trinidadian and she was telling me all the plans with her daughters for Carnivale, coming up in February. it is steeped in long standing cultural and religious traditions that she strongly believes in and I was swept up in the excitement she had. I lamented to her as a pan European mixed "white" atheist, my family had no cultural traditions to pass on to DD. She wisely reminded me that we have plenty of tradition and family quirks, they just might not be related to a specific culture.

we roast hot dogs in the fireplace on Friday nights and have to set up our christmas tree on Dec 1 while watching Christmas Vacation. Each of us gets breakfast in bed on our birthdays (and mother's and father's day). we have a "family" dinner every Sunday with our best friends and tenants who live downstairs. At christmas, there is one present box in my parent's house - a 1970s Levi's jeans box - that one person gets a present in. Whoever gets it then has to use it for someone else the next year. we take bets on who is going to get "the box" before we start opening. I am sure there are others, but those are some I think of fondly.

I hope some of these develop into traditions she holds dear as she gets older and maybe starts with her family when she is older.

What about you all? what family traditions - be they cultural, religious or secular - do you hold dear and hope to pass on to your only?

[namastebiotches]

Honestly, none very specific. We do lots of festivals in the summer, apple/pumpkin picking in the fall, then going to see lights for the holidays (either local or taking a weekend trip.)
Maybe as DS gets older, we'll have some more when he can participate fully.

[gallumbits]

I think we've been in survival mode too much to think about this sadly. But I hope to come up with some as DS gets older.
I've recently declared we are having a family photo every February 1st. This is because I've been bugging DH for months to get a picture with the three of us and keep reminding him it's been way too long. Just looked at the last one and it was feb 1st so might as well wait two weeks and make it a tradition. Haha.

[BostonKisses]

We have a lot. Some are basic things like family dinners with the whole family, alternating which side we spend each one with; going to church and Sunday School on Sundays; dinners together as many nights as possible; etc.

Other traditions are doing the Great Strides walk every year, donating things throughout the year to food pantries/shelters/disaster relief funds/etc., going to church for special services/festivals like those during Holy Week or Ascension, and one I want to start is teaching her the traditions, history, and culture behind the PA Dutch. I don't speak the German dialect, and I want to learn it eventually, but there are words that are commonly used around here and that my grandparents still use, so I want her to learn the meanings behind them. We have certain delicacies in our food that I want her to learn how to make, and next year I want to also start doing the Belschnikel with her around Christmas.

[smalltownmoon]

BostonKisses Can I PM you about the Great Strides events? We are thinking of starting a team this year and I have some questions.

[smalltownmoon]

Traditions... all I've got is Cookie Baking and Christmas Movie Day with DH... we've done the Bolt Run (charity run with the TB Lightning) every year since we were dating so I'd call that a tradition.

Other than that, we don't have a lot of traditions yet, esp since LO is so little right now. I hope we're able to incorporate more as time goes on. My immediate family lived in survival mode for a long time since we were four kids and same with DHs family.

[namastebiotches]

Well I remember one now. We've done two March for Babies walks. Hoping to do that again but they've moved our site a little farther away so we'll see for this year.

[TheEleventhHour]

We don't have any specific cultural traditions. However, DH is half Cuban and would like to learn more about that and share it with DS. His mother was born in Cuba and her father fought with Batista against Castro and was a POW. She has really negative feelings about Cuba, Castro, and communism. She tried to assimilate as much as possible which included not teaching her children how to speak Spanish because they are American. DH doesn't have a relationship with MIL anymore but in the past anytime he brought up questions about Cuba or his heritage she was not forthcoming or excited to share anything with him. DH and I plan to learn Spanish over the next couple of years and teach DS. I have also taught myself how to cook Cuban food! I am also very excited that they are decreasing sanctions against Cuba and hope we can travel there together as a family!

Otherwise, we do apple and pumpkin picking every fall. On Christmas Eve we give DS new PJs and a new book to read with him. I am sure we will establish more as DS gets older!

[eyenigh]

We have pizza every Friday, does that count?

[skategirl128]

We have several. We do special Christmas and Hanukkah activities during that time period.

Each week we try to have dinner together as much as we can. We all love to be in the kitchen and we often make meals together.

I do a DS and I day for Valentine's Day and we do a small memorial thing for his dad each February 4.

I take DS to all kinds of holiday events and seasonal activities. We try to stay active in our community which is a thing for us.