My mom's side of my family used to get together for every holiday on the calendar, but the family get growing and many people had extended families to visit, children to celebrate with at home, and some (like us) moved away to other parts of the state or even country. It got increasingly difficult to have everyone together until we began only getting together for major holidays...Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. The problem with the new plan was that these holidays were close together and nobody saw each other from Easter to Thanksgiving.
Finally, someone came up with the excellent idea of having two family holidays each year...July 4 and Christmas...so that we would see each at least every 6 months. It worked beautifully and has been a tradition for about 7 or 8 years now! We have a warm weather holiday where we cook-out and swim and spend the day relaxing in the hammock or by the pool. Then we have a cold weather holiday where everyone brings warm, heavy food and gathers into one house and laughs and recalls years gone by while watching the youngest generation try to entertain themselves.
Unfortunately, my hubbie and kids and I are missing the July 4 get-together this year because it's tomorrow and I could not get out of working. My oldest is in Missouri and can't come home for it. And my hubbie (who thought he was working until today anyway) and the younger ones can't go and leave me because we only have one car. This is the first time we have ever missed it and there is a general pouty mood in the house tonight, knowing that we can't be there. I guess we will have to find time to go up and visit soon since most of the family lives in the same area, and next year I will put in my time-off request way early!
My Aunt Beth always takes lots of pictures and labels them. Then she puts them out on the table the next year for us to look through and take some. Here are some pics of previous July 4 family-get-togethers. The picture of my beautiful "Grandma P." is from 2005. The pic of my oldest son, Alistair, is from 2006 (He had just gotten his lip pierced so he was playing with it in the picture). The picture of my husband and I is from 2007 and it is still one of my favorite photos of the two of us.
What holiday traditions does your family have? I always love to hear your stories, so please share!
No comments:
Post a Comment