What an enormous magnifier is tradition! How a thing grows in the human memory and in the human imagination, when love, worship, and all that lies in the human heart, is there to encourage it.
~Thomas Carlyle
This week our Living Lovely with Family theme is Yearly Traditions. I am, once again, looking forward to reading your thoughts and ideas on making meaningful connections and memories with our families! Everyone is welcome to participate. Share your thoughts on your blog and add your link below. Feel free to grab the above image (or the smaller button on my sidebar) to add to your blog post. Or share your ideas in the comments! (Scroll past Mr. Linky for my contribution!)
Most of our yearly tradition lines are blurred between seasonal activities and vacations (next week’s theme).
The last two years, Levi and I have joined my sisters and my niece and nephew to watch a local outdoor Shakespeare performance. The location is incredible, the weather has favored us both years, and the productions are stunning! I’m looking forward to this coming year, and I can’t wait until the little boys and hubby can join us!
I have been attending our family reunion every summer for over 20 years! My Dad’s family is large, and we enjoy each other’s company immensely. The family has grown by leaps and bounds over the years, and I’m thrilled that my boys are being grounded in extended family relationships. It helps that most years we’ve met at my aunt and uncle’s house on the river. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve scaled this ramp heading up from the water:
As a child, my family camped in the same spot every year. Now, Russ has started a boys’ camp tradition at this most sentimental spot. This will be their fourth year, although Luke was only old enough to start attending this past year (and Leif has another year to wait). I’m so pleased that Russ is dedicated to this father/son time! 
We hope to begin camping as a family again soon (I’m too wimpy to tent camp with really little guys), but we’ve visited my second favorite spot on earth on day trips each summer. I know that my boys will have glorious memories of their time spent here, just as I do!
When I think of yearly family traditions, though, I immediately think of the Christmas holiday season. We kick it off with our Thanksgiving celebration.
This year we added a new tradition. Green Friday. We spent the day after Thanksgiving on a nature hike and at my sister’s farm house in the country gathering moss, branches, rose hips, apples, and other treasures with which to makes our homes festive for the Christmas season.
We have various ‘around the world’ celebrations during December (Las Posadas, St. Lucia Day), but my favorite is St. Nicholas Feast Day with our best friends! It has been a tradition for years, now. The kids love getting chocolate gold coins in their shoes and our favorite activity is creating marzipan fruits and veggies.
One of our most exciting Christmas traditions is attending Ben and Shan’s themed Christmas party with all my family and some close family friends. Every year (13 years now?), they choose a different theme and go all out. Paris Dinner Train (murder mystery), Morocco, 50s Diner, Hawaiian, Camping, Irish, A Christmas Carol… We even try to come dressed appropriately (several times we’ve been fully costumed!). I wonder what this year’s theme will be! Shannon?
Family traditions counter alienation and confusion. They help us define who we are; they provide something steady, reliable and safe in a confusing world.
~Susan Lieberman