We've Never Been Much for Traditions...

Growing up, holiday celebrations for my family were sporadic to say the least. I'm fine with how we were raised so this isn't about woe is I {woe is me?} for not having those sorts of things 'figured out' for when we had kids. We didn't really have traditions of any kind in place. My husband's family however, had quite a few traditions. But they lived on four acres, were always homeschoolers, and life was different for them. 

There have been attempts at making some traditions in our family, such as making some sort of Christmas ornament every year. And decorating after December 1 for Christmas. I mean, come on, people! Christmas decorations up the day after Halloween?? Where's Thanksgiving even??

But I digress. {I'm long-winded though, so there may be more digressions to come.}

Perhaps I should start with the disclaimer that for us Christmas is probably not the same as it is for other families. We acknowledge that it is the day set by many people for the day of Jesus' birth but we also are quite realistic and know that it is indeed not the day of the Savior's birth. We also know that there are probably more families that set it as the day that Santa comes around dropping presents through the chimney for good girls and boys. We have never done the Santa bit. {And we don't even have a chimney. *wink*} 

Where does that leave us with Christmas? It is a time {"Christmas" never lasts for one day} when we get together as a family and appreciate each other. It is about enjoying the blessings we have in our family. Maybe you could say it's an extension of Thanksgiving. We exchange gifts, of course, and we eat good food. We spend a lot of time being happy with where we are and who we are with.

Jesus is the reason for every season, not just Christmas. 

We have not been good at making traditions that will pass on for generations. Is it ever too late to start a tradition? Since we have lived in Ohio we have done more in the way of holiday traditions than ever before. I think it has some to do with the fact that we used to travel to visit family in another state for Christmas. We didn't need our own tradition- we had theirs. Before living here we only had a tree in our house a small number of times. It was always at someone else's house. I have only a handful of Christmas posts here that talk about what we do/have done. And they have all been written since we have lived here. There are even less Thanksgiving posts. We have attempted to do Advent activities a few times. 

And lights! We love lights here. Not the inflatable snowmen, reindeer in the yard, or light up the sky so the International Space Station can see it. But lights are definitely a tradition here; inside and out.

My kids are -bah! one is no longer a 'kid'!- 19 and 16 years old now. Anyway, this year I'm starting a new tradition for us. I'm sure this is nothing new for many others but hey, it's new to us! When I told my kids what I was going to do they looked at me funny. I'm used to that by now. 

*Drum roll....*

Unwrapping a book to countdown to Christmas day. 

There are undoubtedly a lot of others who have done this, and do this still. I love books so I'm quite disappointed in myself for having not done this before now. But in my defense, my hubby really really thinks I have a book addiction that he is possibly devising ways to cure me of. {No chance of that! My home library is steadily growing.}

Since I decided to attempt this tradition just this month, I'm not going to make it to 25 books for the whole countdown. But that is alright. I have 6 at the moment, and perhaps a couple more can be included from my bookshelves. Here are the specific books* I have so far:

*all images courtesy of Amazon, which are linked to my affiliate code. See Disclosure/Policies.

I would love to have a few more books but we'll just have to wait to see how it goes! Just right off, The Long Winter is a book I'll probably add to the stack for the chapter titled "Merry Christmas". The books I chose were influenced greatest by lists given on the AO forum, as well as some of the pins on Pinterest. Two other books I would like to get are How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Crippled Lamb.

Now, since this post gives the allusion that I'm going to give tips on how to create traditions in a family with older kids, I'll end by pointing you to places that give better ideas than I have. 

• Parents has a list of 14 Ways to Create Fun Family Traditions.
• Cozi gives 50 Holiday Traditions ideas.
• The Art of Manliness has over 60 Family Tradition Ideas. The holiday tradition ideas are near the end.
• The Imagination Tree gives 50 Magical Family Christmas Traditions.

There is probably overlap in those lists and many will be ideas you won't want to even consider for your family. But all those great ideas! 

The best way to start a tradition is to start.

Visit with Family & a Broken Crown

So I’ve unexpectedly been away for…well, for too long.

And I know you’re just waiting anxiously for me to tell you all that I’ve been up to. If you follow on Facebook, the last couple of days I’ve given some updates. But before I get to the last couple of days…let’s back track.

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law came to visit from Oregon. It was a great visit. {No, they didn’t break my crown!} Unfortunately it was very hot while they were here. We don’t have A/C. They have naturally curly, thick hair. You can possibly imagine what the heat and humidity did for them. I just can’t empathize with them… the heat/humidity does nada to my thin, straight locks.

They came into town Saturday evening, the 16th. That first night we just spent getting our sleeping arrangements figured out. Most of our week long visit was relaxing, really. Sunday we went to church. Being Father’s Day, dh and ds went to a Father/Son Breakfast (so nice!) before the main service. Us girls went to Starbucks

After church we went to a graduation party for extended family. The kids and I had met some of the relatives and friends once before but we didn’t really know many people. It was a nice event –and it rained! That was a good thing! It cooled it down considerably.

During their stay we went to the Ohio & Eric Canal Reservation (part of the Cleveland Metro Parks) by dh’s work and had lunch with him. We walked the Blue Heron Boardwalk –and did see a Blue Heron! Fox had skinned his toe pretty bad so he and Grammy stayed at the visitor’s center. We also went to the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Great Lakes Science Center. I am missing a place in there, I think. On Thursday, after the Science Center, we went visit with family again. It was a long drive but I thought it well worth it.

 

 

Those photos were done by my talented sister-in-law, Hannah.

Oh yes! On one of the days we spent many hours working on mandalas. My mother-in-law is a counselor and one of her ‘tools’ {might that be the correct word} to help her clients is making mandalas.

But then on Wednesday night I woke with horrible nerve pain under one of my crowned molars. It was the first day for terrible pain that lasted until Thursday of the next week. I was able to get in to the dentist on Monday, the 25th, but the doctor on duty could only numb me and give me prescriptions. The pain-free day only lasted…one day. I’m on my second set of antibiotics and the dentist prescribed a second pain medication. They tried to do a root canal on that Thursday but the infection is too bad still so they did a partial root canal, I guess you’d call it. The dentist tore up my beautiful crown. I hope to get in ASAP but have a set appointment July 20th.

Yesterday I was tired of concentrating on the pain and just multi-tasked all day long. I did laundry, dishes, made tortillas and dinner, wrote blog posts, did a couple of review posts, made many many batches of tea, cleaned the bathroom, and weeded the garden, then put up a barrier around it. I just kept myself busy all day.

So that’s where I’ve been and some of the things I’ve {and the family} have been up to. I hope that I can get myself back into the routine I’d grown accustomed to. Guess we will see!

School starts for us in just one week! I better get myself together!

Fun Art Project

You probably saw this photo in my weekly wrap up post. It is just turning out so neat that I had to include it. I took the photo with my camera that should explain why it is not very bright and is gritty.

It’s a fun idea that will last for awhile! Lee found this in the March 2012 Family Fun magazine (we’ve been getting it since 2001!). The section is called Make Your House More Fun, page 60.

It’s really simple to do. You need a large poster, markers and something to tack the poster to the wall with. Starting with a large poster, draw a border of at least one inch around the edge (so that the wall doesn’t get colored on). Now draw random lines. Diagonal lines, squiggly lines, curves, sharp angles –whatever!

Soon you’ll see shapes appear. Tack the poster where everyone can easily reach it (we just used Scotch tape at the corners). When the shapes take ‘shape’ {haha, punny} use colored markers to fill in the shapes.

We’ve had our work of art up since the beginning of February and you can see it still has a lot of white space. The markers are easily accessible and whenever the fancy strikes us we doodle on our poster.

What I Did Last Week :)

Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and finally Wyoming. Those are the states I sped drove through on my way ‘home’ yesterday. Well, Wyoming I only drive about 7 miles into but you get the idea My week went entirely too fast and yet, I’m glad I was patient and willing to enjoy all of it.

On Friday last week I picked up a rental car (cause my hubby loves me bunches! and didn’t want me to have any problems on the drive) from Hertz. The ladies were amazing. They looked for and got a discount for me that added up to over $70.

The kids and I were all packed and ready to go Friday afternoon- we were all antsy- but we left at 5:30 am (or so) on Saturday. We drove through the little bit of Wyoming to get to Nebraska. I think that Nebraska is one of *ahem, pardon me here* ugliest states ever. It was fun though, to point out the signs that directed to places that we have been to. Like the Archway Monument or Pioneer Village (both in NE) [this photo was actually taken last summer on our way to Wisconsin]

We’d never been any where in Iowa, Illinois or Indiana as a family. But we did go through some of the states, I believe, when we went to Oshkosh, WI, last summer for Airventure. Maybe.

Once you are out of Nebraska though, the scenery changes. Drastically.

Besides the feeling of being overwhelmed by the extreme traffic in the Cleveland, OH, area, it is green. So green. And there are …. trees. If you have those on a regular basis where you are then perhaps you will not understand. In Wyoming (and a lot of Nebraska) the trees are stunted. Sure there are large ones here and there but they are generally twisted and short. Like they have to fight for the sun- or rather the water to remain alive. In Ohio…it’s not like that. I remembered it was humid but I forgot about the green!

We went to the Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation in the Cleveland Metroparks and it was spectacular. At least to us. My hubby has already purchased himself a bike and has gone on the trails some. Here is just a smidgen of what it is like there. Check out the camouflage tree  

While we were in OH, down where my sister lives, we visited the towns (and even tried to pick out the houses) I lived in when I was younger. I lived in Dayton, Middletown, and Xenia. It was amazing how I could recall some details- such as the buildings on the corner- but not others- like if the house had two windows or one in the front.

In Dayton, we visited the Woodland Cemetery and my niece was wonderfully observant and directed us to the Wright Brothers burial site. And just in case anyone one is a writer out there, cemeteries are great places for inspiration- really!

There was also a section for the Civil War. Some of the tombstones, throughout the cemetery, were so faded, so old, that they could no longer be read.

Here is one that the tree is growing around and over.

And dd, Lee, got her hair dyed. Thanks to her cousin and free hair dye I don’t know if I should put a photo here… perhaps I will ask what she thinks lol. It’s the wash-out dye. Not permanent. Here is a photo of Lee, Fox, and their cousin, poking her head out (before the dye). I didn’t get any other photos of all the family because silly me, I left my camera (with fresh batteries) at home. In a drawer. Yes, I know…

And here is one of me and my sister  

So, now I am ‘home’ and waiting for a new home I think we are going to love Ohio. I had forgotten that it was a great place (well, from my young perspective and not including many factors lol). It was wonderful to see my sis and her family, too.

And that is what I’ve been up to the last week Now I have to get back to ‘work’… lol.