Silly Family Traditions

Christmas is known to be a great time for families. Everyone is feeling full of love and the wonder of the season.  Gifts are exchanged and lots of food gets eaten.  Christmas is also a time for Traditions.  There are certain things our family does the same way every year.  Frances is the keeper of Traditions in our house.  She is always blurting out, "Hey Mommy, are we going to _________ like we did last year?? That was so fun!"  Or telling Henry, "Mommy and Daddy always do _________ after Christmas. It's a Tradition."  Sometimes she remembers things that I didn't put much stock in.  Like this year when I {thankfully} overheard her reminding Henry that "Santa always puts coal gum in our stockings!"  Guess who had forgotten the coal gum?!?!  I found some coal chocolate at CVS on Christmas Eve, and apparently that was good enough.

All these Traditions with a capital T got me to thinking about all the little-t traditions in our house.  The funny, little things that we do in our house that other people probably don't understand.  I wrote about one last March, when I told the story of the "I Love You" sign that the kids and I use.  It still happens on a daily basis. Benjamin has gotten much better at putting up the correct fingers, and he's also taken the lead from his brother to turn his hand over afterwards and shoot webs at me "like Spiderman."

I Love You

Friday night pizza and a movie night is another tradition in our home.  I'm not sure exactly how we came to have pizza every Friday night, but it's a night when Ken is typically not home, so I can get away with a more kid-centered meal.  We've had candy cane or Christmas Tree shaped pizzas, personal pizzas on nights we are ahead of schedule and all in a good mood, a few store bought or delivered pizzas, and even a few guests for Friday night pizza night.

Christmas Tree pizza

Another kitchen tradition that always makes me laugh is this one: I'm sure many moms are used to cooking with little ones underfoot or in and out with questions and requests.  One things that always keeps them in the kitchen is opening a new jar of olives, a jar of pickles, or a bag of pepperonis.  Inevitably, when I open one of those things, one of the kids will ask, "Mommy? Are those fresh?" with a devious little twinkle in their eye.  The question itself typically brings siblings to the kitchen who now all want to know: "Is it fresh?"  What they are really asking for is a taste.  We have to taste the olives to make sure they are fresh.  Sometimes we have to each taste a few!  Kids who come in the kitchen asking for "a taste" of something are rarely rewarded, but add a mischievous twinkle in the eyes and change the question to "Is it fresh?" and they will almost always get what they want: a bite of food, a hug and a smile.

Somehow, my kids also got hooked on stealing cars.  Not for real!!  I don't honestly remember, but I think it's safe to bet that this one started with a sarcastic remark from me.  Something along the lines of one of the kids asking where our van was and me replying that I had no idea, "but this one looks good, so let's take it instead!"  For some reason now, the quickest and most efficient way to get the kids into the van is to tell them it's not our van.  "Quick kids we have to hurry before the owners come out and see us stealing their van!!"  They scramble to get inside and giggle while they are buckling.  Then I have to peek out the back window carefully to make sure we aren't being followed and take off (not really, I promise) out of the parking lot.  They love "stealing" cars!!  It was even more fun after we got our new van.  My mother and I have the exact same van, so for a while it really did feel like we were stealing someone else's car.  Until we personalized it of course.  And by that, I mean we made our own mess inside the van so that no one would ever mistake it for Grandma's!

This one is ours.  At least I'm pretty sure it is. I have no idea why I took this picture!!

The last one I'm including is also something I've mentioned before, but I think it really fits in on this list. Sundays after church are my typical grocery-shopping time.  Especially this year because Frances and Henry are at Sunday school and I've just got Ben with me.  It's almost enjoyable to shop with just one kid!!  After going through the produce section, we head over to the deli.  For a while, I was trying to select a variety of meats and cheese for our weekly sandwiches, but somehow they all got stuck on Colby-Jack cheese.  Or as Ben calls it "Bowby Jack."  Now every Sunday we have to go to the deli counter and order a pound of Colby-Jack.  Did you know that a lot of grocery delis give out cookies to kids?  Mine don't know, because they only ever ask for cheese! After the deli workers have measured out our cheese, they slice out one more slice for each kid with me and hand them over.  We don't even ask any more because all three of the main deli workers in our grocery store know what to do!  And this past Sunday I didn't even have to order the cheese, because Benjamin walked right up to the deli counter and yelled, "A pound of bowby jack, pwease!"

These aren't typically the things I would think of when someone asks me about our family traditions, but they are certainly part of our family and I will miss them when the kids stop signing "I love you" or checking the freshness of our olives, or stealing vans (please don't let them ever start actually stealing vans!), or eating Bowby Jack cheese at the Food Lion deli.

Does your family have any silly family traditions?

Elf on the Shelf

I will admit it. We have an Elf on the Shelf.  His name is Bobby.  Frances named him that back when she was the only one of our children who could talk.  Ahhh...those were the days...
Sorry! I got lost in a memory there!!

Anyway, unlike some other people who have too much time on their hands, our elf is quite boring.  Bobby started out his visit this year by hiding in the kitchen cabinet.  Why the kitchen cabinet, you ask?  Because it took me an hour to find the blasted thing Saturday morning and I needed a place the kids hadn't already seen.

I hid him in my sleeve, snuck into the kitchen and then very nonchalantly asked Frances to come put away a few groceries that were still in a bag on the floor.  She asked me three times which shelf to put it on before she looked high enough to see him.  Then the kids came in the kitchen and giggled for about 10 minutes.

He has also been seen swinging from the ceiling fan and sitting on the shelf with his arms around a Willow Tree angel.  Today he is sitting in the key holder by the front door.  Unfortunately, I am running out of places to put him that the kids can see but not touch.  Yesterday he fell over on the dining room shelf halfway through the day and the kids about lost it!

Frances totally believes in this little elf who goes to the North Pole and tells Santa about her day, but I'm not sure Henry is buying it.  He had a rough day on Saturday and was doing a lot of yelling and foot stomping.  That evening I was talking to him about his day and I asked him what he thought Bobby was going to tell Santa about him for the day.

"He's inside the cabinet. He can't see anything anyway!"

was his reply.  Then I informed him that Bobby could still hear him and his eyes got all big and I could almost see him replaying his day inside his head. Gotcha!!

Carter Mountain Apple Orchard

This Saturday we made our annual trip to Carter Mountain Apple Orchard to pick apples.  My friend Stacey introduced us a few years ago, and we have gone back every year since. The drive over was BEAUTIFUL!!  The leaves are really changing and they are so many different colors. We took the long way there instead of the interstate so we could have a chance to enjoy the beautiful scenery.  When we got there it was crowded! I assume there were a lot of people who wanted to take advantage of the weather.

We had brought supplies for a picnic lunch, but there were no tables left. We decided to just sit down on the grass to eat. It was quite windy up there and Henry complained that he was cold.  When I realized that I forgotten his jacket in the car, Ken went back to get it and I stayed with the kids to make sandwiches. Frances and Henry were sitting with me and Benjamin was wandering around. I was keeping an eye on him, but turned to look at something (a sandwich, probably) and lost track of him.  When I turned to look for him he was standing in front of a huge puddle with a delirious little glint in his eye.  Just as I started to yell to him, he got this huge grin on his face and *jump* *jump* *jump* went right through that puddle!! Frances and Henry started freaking out out! "MOMMY! Look.at.Benjamin.He's.jumping.in.the.mud!!!!!" I look back at Benjamin and he had turned around and *jump* *jump* *jump* through the puddle again.  He looked so happy (and so soaking wet and muddy)! I figured what's done, is done and decided to just watch him jump his little heart out.  I can't decide if I want to laugh or cry thinking back on it.  I debated pulling out my camera, but I didn't want to encourage the behavior, so I decided not to.  I could just kick myself now for that decision.
By this time, Ken was walking back to us. I saw him as he first cleared the hill and he was walking towards us in a nonchalant manner. I could tell the exact instant that he saw Benjamin because his face contorted and he started to run. "NO!! Benjamin!!"  I yelled to Ken to leave him alone and explained my "what's done is done" philosophy.
After we ate lunch, I walked back to the van and grabbed Henry's soccer shorts and a spare pair sandals from the van.  The shorts were long enough to be almost pants and the waist was elastic, so they stayed up fine.  We got a map of the apples and headed out to pick some Fujis.  The rest of the trip was pretty ordinary. We picked about 23 pounds of apples, enjoyed some apple cider doughnuts, and drove home in time for Ken to fry up some catfish for dinner!
Want pics?

We didn't bring a pillow, so Ken improvised.

I have to trick Benjamin into getting a family photo!

Walk to School Day

Every year the kids' school participates in International Walk to School Day.  We first joined in when Frances was in Kindergarten, and have happily walked to school every year since then.  This year, Ken had to go to Ruckersville early in the morning, so I was on my own.

 Ken snapped a picture before we left. I took my JMU pompoms to work with me because I need them there for a secret project. We used them on the way to cheer ourselves on!

As we went up the street we saw some other neighborhood kids walking to school, so we invited them to join us.

They walked with me while Frances and Henry ran ahead.  Can you see them in this picture?  Henry is next to the middle tree-you can barely see the blue of his backpack.

 

We dropped the kids off at school and I started walking back with Benjamin in the stroller.  The best part about this event is that all the kids at the school get to participate-even if they normally ride the bus-because the buses take the kids three blocks down the street and drop them off.  On the way home, Benjamin and I had to swim against the tide of all these other kids walking to school. It was great!  The police were out there directing traffic and high-fiving kids.  All the teachers and principals were out there along with community volunteers and other parents.  It really is fun and I'm glad we got to participate again this year!