After mom passed away I started thinking about traditions and documenting our history. Part of this thinking is what has brought me to the writing world. Another part took me down the path of ‘what does tradition mean to us’. First I had to start with asking myself ‘what is the difference between tradition and routine?’ Routine feels like chores, doesn’t it? And traditions, well…they feel like hot chocolate. With marshmallows. They warm my soul and make me smile.

 
We celebrate (with cake) the first day of school

 
The birthday fairy comes every year and gives you a dozen balloons

 
Planting jellybeans the night before Easter

 
On Mother’s Day, we pick out our oodles of flowers to plant

 
We have a backyard campout every year

 
Adding leaves to our ‘Thankful Tree’ during the month of November

 
Good luck meal on New Year’s Day

I wish I could say we go sit on a beach every year, but we’ve only taken two vacations in the past 12 years and only one of them was to a beach. Good golly, I need to work on that.

 
The balance of starting/having family traditions is a tricky one. I sure do hope that one or two continue on when the kids grow up. Maybe I’ll get to make Great Grandma’s pumpkin bread in the fall with a kitchen full of grandkids?  I can smell the nutmeg now.

 
I sometimes have to check myself when all the traditions start to be too much. When I’m yelling at my husband for getting a vanilla cake instead of a chocolate one, ‘But its tradition!’ I’ve taken it too far and I need to take a step back. Maybe two steps.

 
One of my favorite traditions we started is our tablecloth. Every holiday (or family get-together) we write on our tablecloth and before the next holiday we embroider it so it is ready for the next holiday. It does that hot chocolate thing…warms my soul. I wish mom could have signed it. I think she would like to see Jack-Jacks little hand print last year that Maddie helped him turn into a turkey for Thanksgiving. It’s adorbs.

 
I laugh every time I see where Emily wrote ‘Mommy is awesome’ and the ‘s’ is backwards.

 
*sigh*

 
I just finished setting the table for Easter brunch. What do you think?
What traditions do you have? Would you say they feel like hot chocolate?

Our Easter 2017 table