Traditions

With the holidays here, I have found myself contemplating traditions more and more. I love traditions! I have been trying to start some special ones for my B's, because I think they are so important. Some of our traditions have come and gone, and some have stuck around. You never know when a great idea will strike, you know?
For example, this year is the first time we have ever gone to see a movie on Thanksgiving Day. We had so much fun, we decided the minute we got out of the theatre we are making it a tradition - every year on Thanksgiving, we are going to the movies!
It is interesting how traditions come about - some are well thought out, others just happen. For example, one of our traditions around Christmas time is to listen to The Grinch CD in the car. The Jim Carey version. Every single song is an inspiration to us - we love it! In fact, we love the movie, too. It is our Christmas favorite! We love it so much, we have watched it every single year on Christmas Eve after attending Christmas Eve mass since Brailey was born. It never gets old! And we see something new every time. We only watch it on Christmas Eve, though, so we don't get tired of it.
Another tradition we have are ornaments. This tradition came to me from a very special friend of mine when I was a kid. Elisa, who was my idol when I was growing up, gave me a beautiful ornament every single year for Christmas. Every year when I see these ornaments, I think of her and the love she gave to me. It makes me miss her when I see the special ornaments from her, but it still gives me a warm feeling in my heart. This tradition meant so much to me, I started doing it for my nieces when they were little. I have no idea if they have kept all the ornaments I've given them over the years or not - I hope so. My hope is that they remember how much their Aunti Bo loves them every year when they unpack them and they look forward to the current year's ornament. I also do this tradition with my Godchildren. If you've never done an exchange like this, I highly recommend it. Your children will start their grown-up lives with a wonderful collection of ornaments attached to even more wonderful memories. I know a lot of people who do this, and the good feelings held within the ornaments lives on year after year.
Another Christmas tradition for us is pajamas - every year, I get the B's a  new pair of pj's. Last year, this was one of their most anticipated gifts! We open this gift on Christmas Eve so they can go to bed and wake up on Christmas morning in their new jammies. Last year, I had a terrible time trying to find a pair in Britt's size. This year, I've already found his, and Brailey's are the challenge. How can that be?! It used to be so easy, when they were little, to grab similar pairs of pajamas. Now that they are bigger, it is harder, but the rewards are still the same. I guess it wouldn't be any fun if it was easy to find them, right? After all, they have to be the most perfect pair.
One time I had a hair dresser who shared with me a family tradition of hers that I tried to implement into our family, but it just didn't work out for us. Every Friday night, she had a candlelight dinner for her family. Her kids loved this! My kids did, too, but it seems like we are always doing something else on Fridays. And now that we are Gold Rush Addicts, we can't possibly miss that show, candlelight dinner or not! We also tried to have Fridays be Game Night, but that didn't work, either, for the same reason the candlelight dinners didn't. What can we say? You have to do what works, right? Maybe someday down the road it will work out, when the kids are older.
Of course we have the usual traditions, such as taking pictures one the first day of school by the school sign, trick-or-treating at our own house first, putting teeth under our pillows for the Tooth Fairy, buying Train CD's (and Eric Church and Aerosmith and Lady Gaga - yes, I have to have the real CD, I'm old-fashioned that way!) on the first day they come out, singing Happy Birthday to people we love as loud as we can, and back to Christmas, writing our letters to Santa and baking Swedish Rolls for Christmas morning breakfast. I'm sure there are even more things we do that I can't remember, and we're sure to create more traditions as time marches on.
If we only had more time, there are a thousand tradtitions I would introduce. Maybe that is what makes traditions special, though - the fact that they aren't always easy and sometimes they only come once a year. What do you think? What are some special traditions you and your family have? Please  share them by posting a comment below (simply click on the envelope next to the "Comments" and then enter the secret code). I would love to see what you and yours do to make life more meaningful. Traditions... I love them!