Traditions - New and Old

As families evolve, so do their traditions.  We've carried on traditions from years ago when the kids were small, but with the changing family dynamics, not to mention all the added people our children married and brought into the fold, we've had to add new traditions to the mix.  This makes for a rich and varied Christmas season.

One of our newest traditions started four or five years ago when it we decided that it'd be fun to have a party with just the adult children, giving them a break from their kids for an evening.  It has turned into a much anticipated event.  This year just four of the kids and spouses attended - the out-of-towners who had a 5 or a 12 hour drive, were excused, as was our son Rob who was on a business trip to, of all places, Siberia.

Jenny, Lloyd and Anders - quiet time before the rest arrived

Me and daughters Jenny, Amy, Sara and Emily

Lloyd with Sons-in-law Curtis, Allan, Anders and Quincey

Of course, food was the first order of the evening, and then we sat around in a large circle and played a hilarious game of Catch Phrase, opened gag gifts (we drew numbers to see who would choose the first gift, then each person in turn could take an unopened gift or 'steal' from one of the gifts already opened) which consisted of such things as unliked movies, hot sauce, a statue of Queen Elizabeth who waves her hand when put in the sun, ugly Christmas ornaments, etc.  Then we told stories of Christmasses past and traditions each family enjoyed, and visited till after midnight.

One tradition that developed when our kids were still at home, and which I'm sure our kids don't know about, has to do with how many presents each one found under the tree.  Lloyd and I always made lists and kept track of who got what so that no child got more gifts than another...because I'm sure they counted and we wanted to have a peaceful Christmas day.  When the buying was completed and the wrapping begun Lloyd would invariably come home with a gift that he just had to get for one of the kids.  Of course, that meant that we'd have to go shopping for an additional gift for the other six kids!  Sometimes he'd do this more than once and the kids ended up with more gifts than was originally planned.  Lucky kids to have such a generous father!

It's fun now to see which of our traditions our children are carrying on in their families and which ones they've added from their spouse's family.  It's all about love and togetherness though and we have plenty of that to go around.

I hope you're enjoying your special traditions of this festive season.