Growing up, one of my favorite things was that we'd save the Christmas things for that season alone. After Thanksgiving, the Christmas music, books, and decor could all come out, but they went back into the attic in January. It was so fun having those "special" books and things for that one time each year. Watching those ABC Family 25 Days of Christmas movies was one of my favorite things.
We'd been dating only a few weeks when I brought up the "What kinds of traditions did you have growing up?" and "Which traditions would you like to keep/begin for your hypothetical family with me?" (probably not my exact words). It was a fun conversation that got us thinking about ideas and reminiscing about our childhoods.
So it was a big thing to me from the start, to have things that we, as a family could look forward to and have as ours. We've only been married three years, but we actually have a few already.
For our anniversaries, we're going to try to stick to the traditional gifts. The first year was paper, the second was cotton, the third was leather, next year is Linen or Silk, and so on. It's been a fun creative challenge too.
One other anniversary tradition is that I try on my wedding dress. I love doing this, and I plan to continue my tradition until I physically cannot. Since it's a dress... I mean the physically think quite literally.
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| Our wedding day - 2010, Spring Formal - 2011, Our Spokane apartment - 2012, Our Ohio house - 2013. You can tell that I didn't wear the heels in 2012 - they add another 4.5 inches. |
There aren't any set birthday traditions yet, but I have some good ideas. Most of them involve food. Cinnamon rolls, cakes, that sort of thing. When I was younger, Mom and Dad would put our presents on the kitchen table and we'd eat breakfast and open gifts, which made it special. I think we got to pick out dinner for that evening too, because there was one year that all my brother requested was pancakes and water. Lame.
When we travel, we find an ornament (or something that we can tie a string on and use as an ornament) to commemorate that trip. I have them from Amsterdam, Beijing, Ukraine, from our honeymoon in Mexico, various day trips we've taken. This is a great tradition and it gives us something to hunt for in cheesy souvenir shops.
On the 4th of July, we wear red, white and blue, or at least two of those colors together (my sister always wears green, which I kind of love too).
For Easter, I plan to make deviled eggs from now on. We also dye eggs every year (Grandmama sends an egg dye kit with my birthday gift every year which helps me remember to do it!).
Thanksgiving this past year didn't really have any traditions. We had a dinner with friends and then our own variation. That could be a potential tradition.
At Christmas, we take a picture in front of the tree, and we have our very own set of Christmas books and movies that are for that season alone... and we try to keep adding to that collection each year. We actually have a whole list of traditions taped to the inside of the box where we keep our ornaments.
We wear green on St. Patrick's Day (I made Carson change this year and we were late to church) and one year, I went all out with green food and nails and house. We try to get a Shamrock Shake at McDonald's too, but every year we remember that we don't love them, so this may not stick.
Before writing this, I didn't realize that we had so many traditions!
What's your favorite way to make a day seem special?
you get prettier every year! you picked such a timeless dress-- so lovely!
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