What is your favorite non-holiday tradition?

michelle_phxaz

14 years ago

What is something you do with your family that has become a tradition? Do you ever change it up?

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Comments (5)

rosepetal2
14 years ago
when I am home over the summer (I live in England, my family is in Nebraska) my 2 sisters and I go to a citywide garage sale in July and a large neighborhood one in Aug. Both are usually on the hottest days of the year but we enjoy finding bargains for each other and our extended family and crashing somewhere that is air conditioned for lunch then we're off again for more bargains. It has become "our special time" together. We share laughs, old time memories and just being with each other. I always look forward to those weekends.
Diane
jel48
14 years ago
Camping get together with my sisters (and any of our kids, grandkids, etc, that can make it) in Iowa every July. We missed this year because of the flooding on the Missouri River (park was flooded) but I wouldn't have been able to make it anyway since I had a grandbaby due that same time in Minnesota. I love our camping trip! We started it as a way of making sure we would all still get together, on some sort of regular basis, after my mom passed away.
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This is a good thread, very enjoyable. There are so many favorites, but two that are special to me are: 1. I'll Be Home for Christmas. My father would tell us every time that the song came on about how this was the song they played on the ship on his way to Germany during the Korean War. It became such a funny thing that when I was older, I would end up calling him when I would hear it and say "Dad, did I ever tell you about the time you were on a ship in the army and they played "I'll Be Home for Christmas?...well it's on the radio right now". What a great guy he was, miss him a lot. 2. "Oh Holy Night" a memory created only about 6 years ago--we were on a cruise for Christmas, and we were leaving St. Lucia on Christmas Eve, so standing at the aft of shift watching the island disappear, this was the song that was softly playing on the ship's PA system. Oh, the goosebumps I get. I still don't know if it was Celine Dion or Gloria Estefan singing it. So of course, I have both versions on my iTouch.
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Comments (19)
We have some variations from year to year, but my dad (twice widowed) comes for Christmas from about two hours away. He's here now and will stay til Monday. I don't have siblings and extended family lives very far away. I am grateful that he is a very youthful 76 and has no problems making the drive! This afternoon, as always, we let the kids open their present from us -- always 2 or 3 books for each. Then they open gifts from each other, which is a tradition they started on their own and I find it very sweet. Tonight we will go to a "fancy" restaurant like terriks, and then to our neighbor's house across the street for a couple of hours. Even though my kids are 10, 16, and 19, even the older ones like to go to bed early on Christmas Eve so they can get to Christmas morning! Ssnta always leaves the kids' stockings outside their bedroom doors. I'm considering stopping that tradition this year, because DS, age 19, has some kind of interior alarm that wakes him at something like 4 am every Christmas and I can hear him grabbing the stocking and dumping it on his floor. He is like a little kid every Christmas. Santa puts the rest of the presents in the basement playroom (the tree is upstairs in the family room) -- a great idea Santa came up with many years ago because that's where the toys belong, after all. We'll have a huge breakfast (egg/hash brown casserole, fruit salad, chocolate croissants, cinnamon rolls) and then snack-ish food throughout the day -- cheeses and crackers, fruit, pigs in blankets, etc. My SIL and BIL will stop by in the afternoon, and family friends will stop by for dessert. And I will probably be in bed by 9 pm!
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Comments (25)
When I replied so quickly to Yoyobon's question with Nomadland, I was thinking only of the past year. (Guess I was still in "Best of 2018" mode.) Looking back further, I have a few more: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown This is an account of the University of Washington crew (boat-rowing) team that against all odds became the team to represent the U.S. in the 1936 Olympics. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt I was well along in this book when someone said to me, "Isn't it amazing that it's a nonfiction book?" I was floored. It reads like a novel, and a far-fetched one at that. Quite a story, it's about the trial of Jim Williams who stands accused of murdering his gardener/house boy. Touching the Void by Joe Simpson This is the story of a mountain climber who crawled many miles back to his base camp with a broken leg after being left for dead by his climbing partner in the Andes. Appetite for Life by Noel Riley Fitch This the biography of Julia Child. I just like her a lot and so enjoyed this book. Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz This book describes interviews that Horwitz conducted in which he asked people throughout the southern states of the U.S. why the U.S. Civil War is still such a big deal to them.
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Comments (11)
My favorite fruiting tree is Meyer lemon, mainly because I use more lemons than any other fruit. It is difficult to pick just one. The fig trees from Texas that I had in Venice produced the sweetest fruit of any fruit tree that I've had, but the season is not that long, and it got hot in the kitchen when I made fig preserves, which I mostly gave away. I also love my blood orange tree and cherimoya. Favorite non-fruiting tree is Ceiba speciosa (Silk floss tree), which makes beautiful pink flowers in the fall and has a very interesting spiked trunk.
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bulldinkie
14 years ago
Our family gets together, all of us every Thursday nite for dinner.11 of us
satine_gw
14 years ago
Bulldinkie, what a wonderful tradition! My sister hosts a girls weekend at her lake cottage every year. The number of ladies attending varies according to work, vacations, etc but we have had as many as 15. This year we had to cancel because my sister's husband is quite ill. I think when we resume it will be a smaller group as some of the younger girls are now into teendom and sports etc. of course, there are also new little ones to take their place. Traditions are good. Satine
User
14 years ago
During the summer, I take my kids out at least one place every week. It might be out to eat or to the zoo or some special event going on. I make sure I do something with them every week that is fun so we don't just let the time pass us by.

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What is your favorite non-holiday tradition?

Comments (5)

rosepetal2

jel48

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bulldinkie

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