Day 129...Tradition

I was going to talk about behavioral modeling today. But there has been something else on my mind. Tradition. With the upcoming holiday, my husband and his family have all been buzzing with the talk of all their Christmas traditions. In fact, later today we are going to my in-law's house to do their traditional Christmas cookie frosting that they do each year.

All of this has got me to thinking....what are my family traditions? There was often things that we did each year like spend one night walking around the neighborhood to look at all the lights (often after dinner on Christmas Eve), or we would set out my dad's old train set around the tree and take turns driving it around. But a lot of the times, our lives were changing so much that true solid traditions never really took hold. There were years were my dad had to work on Christmas day, or other years where we would celebrate with family and friends but another year it would be just the four of us. All in all, we had little consistency to really establish a firm tradition.

As we got older and my brother and I moved out of the house, our traditions changed even more. Slowly over the past few years, the Christmases at our house grew quiet, and now my parents hardly seem to feel the Christmas spirit at all. After all that has gone on in the past year, they seem too tired and stressed to care about hosting yet another holiday. We're still having Christmas Eve dinner with them, but I can't say that I feel terribly excited to spend the holiday there knowing that they would rather not have anyone there at all.

Last night, my husband and I walked around down town Seattle with my parents to enjoy the lights and festivities that were going on so as to get them more in the holiday spirit. But, instead, it turned out to just be a time for them to vent. By the end of the evening, my husband and I had been dragged down into their "bah humbug" state of mind, trying our best to keep our holiday in our own happy light. Not an easy thing to do when my own family seems to be more bothered by Christmas gatherings than anything else.

I hope that I can find some more joy in new traditions with my husband's family, and I really hope that we can form solid traditions to pass on to our own children some day. I don't want Pickle to grow up struggling to remember if they ever had any holiday traditions at all.

Last night, my parents said it was easier to hang out with us than with my brother and his family because, with us, they can do adult things without the worry of a baby getting in the way. My heart sank. I guess they'll have to enjoy it while they can, because, come this time next year (if all goes to plan) Pickle will be here. I sure hope, someday, my family can find it's way to enjoy family, holidays, and tradition again. It just might take a Christmas miracle.

Traditions, traditions. Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as... as... as a Pickle on the roof!