Renewed Red, White and Blue

One of the fun traditions my sisters and I have is the yearly gathering for patriotic pedicures. We missed last year (stupid COVID) and while I could have done my nails at home, 1) doing it alone was nowhere near as fun and 2) my mind was so wrapped up in other far more stressful things that it never even occurred to me until it was long past the appropriate holiday. When I realized that the time had passed, I mourned the missed event as yet another way our lives had been disrupted. I think all my sisters missed our time together as much as I did, because this year we jumped the gun and got our toenail time in a few weeks earlier than normal. We also added the daughters to the occasion which was super fun! Malia got to come with me, and we all created our red, white and blue sandal wearing proclamation of our love of country.
 

Is it sad that looking at my toes makes me ridiculously happy right now?

Traditions

We have a variety of family traditions centered around Easter. We color eggs, of course, which is always fun. Our dying session was on Friday and things were so mellow that I didn’t even think to take any pictures. We do our egg hunt on Saturday, so yesterday we hid the eggs, let Malia find them and then ate egg salad sandwiches and deviled eggs for lunch. That has also become a tradition since our kids are old enough now that they will all eat egg salad…Matthew excluded of course. While he is eating waffles with eggs every week with no reactions, he’s not quite ready for whole eggs. But he does enjoy helping peel the eggs. I’m not sure why, but that means fewer for me to peel so I can’t complain.

Today’s Easter baskets held a chocolate bunny for each kiddo and our traditional gift that reminds them of the Savior. This year Kev and I created some picture boards with clips that will allow the kids to swap pictures out their wallet size pictures of Christ whenever they desire. We’re thinking forward to the near future when both Daniel and Nathan will be living in places with limited space like dorm rooms and missionary apartments. We wanted something compact enough to travel with them wherever they go. One of our neighbors runs his own carpentry business and was happy to help us create some amazing looking boards. They look about a million times better than they would have if I had painted them.

Dinner this evening held more traditions. No matter what I suggest for Easter dinner, my family always wants ham and cheesy hash brown potatoes. In the name of simplifying, I did get them to forgo the rolls this year, but that was their only concession. Pretty much the only menu item I’m allowed to switch up is the veggies. But that’s ok. It is a delicious dinner that we don’t eat all that often. And if I want to try out other holiday related foods, I just do it in the week preceding the actual holiday. Kev’s parents usually join us for dinner on Easter but with COVID still rearing its head, we packed dinner up for them so they could enjoy it at home.

Our traditional Easter dessert is hot cross buns. This is a once a year treat and last summer’s binge watching of the Great British Baking Show gave me a couple of tips that made this year’s buns both look and taste just a little bit more amazing. I’m actually tempted to make them more than once a year. Or maybe I need to use those handy tips to expand into some other types of sweet rolls. Of course, if I do that too often, I might start to expand literally…

But back to the point. I love my family traditions. And I find I’m even more jealous of them than usual knowing that in the next year another of my children will be leaving home. It’s a strange thing to be contemplating the fact that in the fall only 50% of my children will still be living at home. So I cling to our traditions and I find that my family does as well. In coming years, I know some traditions may need to be modified, some new ones may be established, and some may no longer fit our needs. But for now, we cling to our traditions and treasure our time together. After more than a year spent in closer proximity to each other for longer periods of time than usual, we all still value our time together and in fact, I think we love it all the more.

 

Here We Come A-wassailing

Just before Thanksgiving, we all sat down together and talked about what we wanted our holidays to look like this year. Things were obviously going to be different, but that gave us the opportunity to talk about what traditions and activities were important to us and which ones could be left by the wayside. We came up with a list of things we wanted to make time for and going Christmas caroling was one of them. I haven’t been Christmas caroling since I was in college and I don’t think any of my kids have been either. It seems to be one of those traditions that has quietly become a thing of the past. But not for us. We decided to shake things up a bit and celebrate Christmas old school style.

This evening we bundled up, came up with a short set list, decided which houses to visit, and started singing. We sang to about sixteen different people/families, including one stranger we happened to cross paths with while making our way from one house to another. The reception was warm, and I think we added a bit of light to our neighborhood.

After caroling, we talked about our experience over cookies and wassail. The Spirit was definitely with us as we sang carols celebrating our Savior’s birth. We added some joy to some homes. We lifted some Spirits that were in need. We did a small service for just a few of our wonderful neighbors. And we found joy in doing so. We all loved the experience we had this evening and I suspect it is one that will be added to the list of traditions we want to continue.

Gratitude

 See the beautiful herb encrusted turkey swimming in its own delectable juices.

 See the vultures, forks in hand, prepared to deface said beautiful turkey.

See the feeding frenzy commence. 

 

See the naked, yet still delicious, turkey.

Now, you may ask, what kind of mother would let her offspring attack the delightful end-result of a week of defrosting, brining, prepping, and roasting? That would be me. And why in the world would I do that? I learned it from my own mother. 😉 And to be completely honest, I had the camera in one hand and a fork in the other. There is no way I’ll let my children desecrate a turkey without me.

As with all things since March, our Thanksgiving looked a bit different this year. Instead of having a crowd for dinner at my folks’ house, it was just six us of for dinner at home. We spent the day relaxing, smelling the roasting turkey, playing games and anticipating pie. The kids even had a marathon multiplayer Chicken Invaders game going in the afternoon.

It was much calmer, quieter, more peaceful than our usual celebration. And it made me think. We are at the point where our kids are growing up and moving out. In the next ten years, I suspect we’ll be seeing a few new faces at our table. As we’ve done with Christmas, I think it’s time to start creating some Thanksgiving traditions of our own. I love gathering with my family. And because Kevin’s mom always schedules her celebration for the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we’ve never had to alternate between families. But in coming years, it is going to become important that we have our own traditions in place. When Kev was growing up, Thanksgiving and Christmas were both celebrated with his grandparents. It was fun and all, but his mom has expressed some regret over the fact that she never established traditions for her own family. I don’t want to have those regrets twenty years from now. So in the next year, I think we’re going to be making some decisions. Pie day with my mom and my sisters is always a chaotic, crazed mess…and so much fun. So maybe it’s pie day with the extended fam and turkey day at home with our own little clan. I’m not sure yet. But we’ve got time to figure it out. We’ll counsel with our kiddos and see what they think as well. Their preferences are an important part of this equation.

 

As I ponder today on the many things for which I’m thankful, I can see that my family and I have been greatly blessed this year. Yes, we’ve had challenges and disappointments. Yes, we’ve had to change our life plans on numerous occasions. Yes, we all wish COVID was not a thing. But still, we can all see the multitude of tender mercies that we have had as well. I have much to be thankful for and in fact, Kev has encouraged all of us to allow our troubles to be swallowed up in increased gratitude for our many blessings. And you know what? It works. Focusing on all the good the Lord showers down on us helps us deal with the bad a bit better. My heart is full today as I ponder on all the ways in which my family and I have been blessed.

 

It has been a good day. A peaceful day. A day full of gladness and gratitude. And by the way, the bean juice pie is delicious. It tastes just like the real thing. Weird but true.

Thanksgiving Traditions

Malia is in kindergarten which means that yesterday Malia had the tradition kindergarten Thanksgiving feast at school. She wore the traditional paper bag vest and ate the not so traditional offerings of her allergy friendly snack bin. All the a.m. and p.m. kindergarten students came in the morning. It was completely insane…and there were two classes missing because they are off-track. But she had a fabulous time.

Yesterday was also our traditional pie day and we made pie. So. Much. Pie. As always, it is an insane amount of pie. But we started early and finished fairly early so we took the kids out to eat on the way home. We opted for the not-so-traditional sushi and while the big folk ate that, Matthew joined in the fun and ate his tater tots with chopsticks. He’s such a good sport about packing his own food when we go out. I know it isn’t the way he’d like things to be, but he accepts it and is so great about it.

Today we ate the traditional turkey and got to partake of the pies of our labor. There was a delicious variety to choose from and as usual, I think we all ate too much pie.

Malia also got to wear a (nearly) traditional pilgrim cap thanks to my friend Tiff and Sabrina's decision that she was too old for such things.

One of my favorite things about the holidays are all the family traditions. I’m looking forward to all the traditions still to come in this holiday season.