I love holidays. I have always loved the traditions that my family has. I am pretty sure that everyone loves holidays mostly because of the traditions they grew up with, and the memories they have.
Every..
Christmas we go to Mexico with my dad’s family.
Thanksgiving we ALWAYS spend with my mom’s family in Tooele.
Halloween we carve pumping at my dad’s parents.
New Years we are still driving back from Mexico with my dad’s family and watch fireworks from the border of Mexico.
….and for the 4th of July my entire life we have woken up early to drive about an hour to my moms home town Tooele. We sit by the curb at my grandpa Bob’s which is right where the parade starts and all my cousins, aunts and uncles are there. The parade is always ridiculous, Tooele is a small town and it shows with the parade. There is an abstinence float, they have the cheerleaders “dance”, and people ride through in their trucks and honk, Pet groomers walk all the furry clients, and it’s what I’ve grown up watching. When the parade is over we walk the 100 feet back to my grandpa’s back yard and have a pancake buffet breakfast. I don’t see my extended family on either sides too often. But especially not my mom’s side, since they are a bit further out. I really enjoy holidays, because we have a reason to get together and a tradition to uphold. The hardest thing that Jared and I face in our marriage, and even before we were married, but we were seriously dating, is that he also has traditions with his family that he LOVES and wants to participate in. Because of the fact that my family lives a bit further away it really is hard to try and make it to both families every holiday. All the driving and traveling exhausts us, and dulls the holidays. We’ve tried doing just one family for some holidays, and the thing is one of always feels like we are sacrificing that holiday and that tradition. I am hoping we get into a routine of maybe every other year or something where we both are happy and don’t feel like we are sacrificing, but look forward to the holidays. We are still trying to figure it out, and it’s really hard. I keep hearing that we need to start our own traditions, and do what makes us the most happy. We’re trying, believe me we are trying.
Back to the 4th of July. For the past couple of years, we have gone to Tooele for the parade. Which means getting up at 6am, driving out there, and then coming back to Murray (about 45 minute drive), and going to his families BBQ which starts at noon. We usually would get there around 2. Anyway, this year I thought I would try and let Jared have this holiday and then I would get one in return. Plus I am getting tired of every holiday becoming a rush. We can’t enjoy it, because we are so focused on when we need to leave to make it to the next party. Like I said we are trying to find a medium. Maybe next year we’ll do 4th of July with my family, this year we spent the day doing things that were Jared’s tradition. It was fun for me to be part of his traditions, and all of them. I was missing my family throughout the day, but I was still enjoying being at the DeMann BBQ and taking on his traditions. I had a blast watching Jared get way too competitive at hand ball, having a water fight with all the little cousins and my only niece and nephew. I took my niece on a walk and we caught bugs and talked about fireworks. I always love seeing all my in laws too and Jared’s aunt Winnie makes the most delicious cake in the world. All of those things were lots of fun for me, and made me really glad that we were able to be there and enjoy it.
After the BBQ we realized we had the whole night to do whatever we wanted, because we weren’t exhausted from traveling back and forth from Tooele. We had no plans and It felt wonderful! Driving home we went to fashion place mall and got some pizza at the food court, we sat down and talked. One of my favorite things that we don’t do enough! We went on a mini shopping spree at H&M;, Vanity, and a few other places in the mall. I love when Jared picks out clothes for me, and he’s a good shopping partner. He will go and grab me different sizes, and gives me his opinions. I love him. Of course, I was able to help him pick out clothes as well. He looks really good in anything though. I have a really good looking man. Anyway we bought ourselves a couple presents. The mall closed and we still had the shopping itch, so we decided to go to target, we never made it in target.. because we found this hidden little fair behind target! Since we are so used to doing our traditions we’ve never done anything new. So instead of going into target we scoped out the fair, and it looked pretty happenin! We decided we’d go home and come back in a few hours if we still wanted to. On our drive home we saw a new ice cream shop opened up by our house, so we stopped in and got some delicious ice cream. Another brilliant idea!
We went home and unloaded our shopping trip, and after very little contemplation, we decided to go back to the hidden fair. I called a couple friends to see if anyone wanted to join. Ellen and Josh (my twin in law), decided to come with us. I can’t explain how much I love doing things on a whim. I sent a text to Ellen and Josh 20 minutes before we left, and they were both down to come. So we grabbed blankets and chairs and, of course, our puppies. Hopped in the car, and cruised over. We had no idea what to expect. None of us had ever been there. We didn’t know if there were even fireworks (we just assumed), the place was packed and after stepping on 2,000 people, and pulling Shia away from everyone on the ground that had food, we found a perfect spot for the 4 of us, and the 2 dogs. After we set up camp, we walked around and explored. It was SO great! There were tons of little booths with glitter tattoos, live music, every type of food, snow cones and everything you could hope for. It was spectacular. After Ellen and I decided we looked like sister wives and Jared was our man husband, after at least 10 people thinking Ellen’s fur baby was a dalmatian (which angers her more than the world ended this year), and after one person thinking Shia was a PIG (idiot).. We made our way back to our seats just in time for everything to shut down, and complete silence and darkness took over the entire crowd.
Then the fireworks went off. It was a spectacular show. Shia loved fireworks, she just stares at them or she stares at the food you’re holding.
After all the stress holidays tends to bring me, it’s all totally worth it when you get to spend time with your sexy husband, perfect puppy, and really good friends.
