Family Traditions

I was so excited to teach my Beehive lesson yesterday. It was about family traditions and as I went through preparing the lesson, I thought of a lot of family traditions that I enjoyed. For my sake and that of my posterity, I thought I'd quickly jot them down...

Disneyland:

As a family we had tons of great trips to Disneyland. Dad would always spin the teacups like crazy. We would get ice cream to eat during the day and a lollipop on the way out. I have lots of great memories of Disneyland. Thanks to my dear parents, I can no longer watch a Disneyland commercial without tears coming to my eyes for the fact that I'm not there at that instant!

Marie Callender's:

I don't know how often...maybe once a month we would go as a family to Marie Callender's. It must not have been too cheap because there were six of us, we could usually bring a friend, and we usually got appetizers and dessert, too. We would sit around the table and tell jokes and people would comment to my parents about how well-behaved their kids were. That made us feel proud. Oh, I usually liked to get a little dressed up because it was a good excuse. I usually had the Turkey Croissant Club and Mocha Mousse Pie. Yum! On the way home all of us kids would be so full we would usually pass out in the van and then Dad would carry us in. Sometimes even if I wasn't asleep, I would pretend I was just so my dad would carry me. He must've carried me until I was in my early teens!

Family Home Evening:

I don't know if we had it weekly or not, but I do remember having quite a few Family Home Evenings. I remember participating in the music, making treats, doing flannel board lessons. I'm grateful that my family had Family Home Evening and hope to pass on that tradition to my own kids.

Rock & Talk:

I don't know how often this occurred, but it was one of my favorite traditions. We would sit on my dad's lap in the rocking chair and rock and talk (clever, huh?). I'm sure my topics of discussion were usually about ballet, but we would talk about whatever came to mind.

Date Nights:

About once a month we would get to go out on a date, one-on-one, with our parents. We got to choose what we did. I think that's something amazing to do with your kids. I think I remember talking to Michael about this even before we were married and telling him that I wanted to institute it when we had kids. Here we are. I look forward to having this be a formal thing as the kids get older. I'm sure they will look forward to it as much as I did growing up.

These are just a few of the traditions we had in our family. Of course, there are lots more...especially centered around holidays. Thanks to Mom and Dad for implementing them and giving me a great childhood.