In the wee hours of the morning, Dad took his place at the head of our dining room table. And as mom rushed around making sure we kids had brushed our teeth and didn’t have oatmeal in our ears, Dad would read. Bible stories. You know, the kind with pictures. Of Jonah. Of Noah. Of water and wine. Of anything we could visualize and understand through a highly disproportional cartoon Jesus riding on an equally disproportional smiling donkey. And then, we’d pray. For my spelling test, for Lorae’s history project, for Cam’s big head to shrink a little. ;) And for the reality of God’s word and promises to stay with us throughout our day at school.
I don’t recall a single morning my family didn’t gather to pray. Sure, as we got older and could check for vestibular oatmeal ourselves, our prayer time was hurried by homework left until the last minute or crazy bus driver Dan arriving at our house five minutes too early. But still, we prayed.
As I find myself in the middle of grownup-ism (I know I could have said adulthood, but that word’s nowhere near as fun), I’ve started thinking about what traditions I want to start. Not just for when Dylan and I have a family, but for the here and now. So while I’m working on convincing Dylan to bring home ice cream every Thursday night, I want to know..
What are some of your favorite family traditions? Silly, serious, ice cream related, or not – I’d love to hear ’em! And maybe, just maybe steal them. :)
And because blogs without pictures are dumb, here’s one of my new orchid, Sally. Dylan gave her to me for our one month wedding anniversary. Now that seems like a nice tradition. :) But, maybe not the whole naming-my-plants part.. That’s weird, I’m told.
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Happy Thursday!!
Pete - It is a Morrissey tradition to get ice cream on the first
day of summer.
Jackalyn Pelcher - Pancake day a day for family to wake up late stay in there pj’s and make an amazing brunch together and laugh and joke and talk about the week. My husband and I moved to florida in 2006 with no friends in the area or extra money to go out we implemented pancake day a sunday event that was always just us and we would make coffee and pancakes and sit together at the table disscusing over lives of the week or silly commics in the sunday paper we spend the morning just us just in our pj’s and slippers sipping coffee and enjoying our time together. Now we have moved back to ny and our lives are more hetic then ever we both work 1 full time job and i have a part time job and he coaches so our weeks are hit and miss but every sunday we sleep till 9 and have a great pancake day filled with laughter love and bowl of fruit and it helps to keep our weeks and our relationship on track. I cant say what the key to happy marriage is but i can tell you the right mixture of pancake batter and quaility time are ingredients i couldent live with out. my sunday tradtion is one i hope to keep within my family. Andrew and I have balanced out some of the most stressful days over a batch of warm fluffy pancakes.
Kate W. - Alyse, I absolutely love reading your blog. You always make me laugh out loud. I mean, grownup-ism?! Hilarious! And an orchid named Sally? Its so unexpected yet feels so right. If you want to add a Christmas tradition, my family has to search for this pickle ornament on our tree on Christmas morning. http://www.victoriantradingco.com/store/catalogimages/1a/i731.html Whoever finds it opens their present first!
Kate W. - Oh yeah, and from the other day: I love the Weepies! Good choice.
stephanie - My family has a funny Christmas tradition: My grandparents always put an orange in the toe of our stockings before all the other presents go in. I don’t even know why, that’s just always what we’ve done!
jessica - ahhh…traditions…family traditions:) well, my most favorite of all time from my growing up family was Christmas morning…we would wake up and were only able to open up our stockings while waiting for all others to join in from their slumber. After this my most favorite time of the whole year ocurred. We would read the story of Jesus birth and then take communion as a family!!! i could cry right now just even thinking of how sweet, powerful and precious this time was and always will be to me…i can say that even though things through the years have been rough and the make-up of how my family is has changed…well, this has always been a constant tradition! it is sooooo powerful!!! after taking communion and pausing to remember Our Lord! we would sing and worship as a family. Again, this memory is my favorite! and this tradition something i will carry on forever!
a few more that Gabe and i have made. well, Friday night is DATE NIGHT!!! him and me and me and him baby!!! this is our date time. it is the most wonderful thing to date him still!! this will never stop!
also, whenever we are leaving one another…whether he runs to the store or i get out of the car in the morning when he drops me off at work…well, we wave “i love you” as our goodbye…you know…in sign language:) it can always be heard!
oh…and if i put lotion on my feet in the morning, Gabe will put lotion on and rub my feet at night…it think this was his initial attempt to get me to just remember to put lotion on my poor overworked feet…but a promise is a promise! my feet have never looked better;)
those are just a few…