Im sorry, but when ever I talk about tradition, i think of Tevye!I LOVE our family traditions, and our discussion in class over chapter 23 really opened my eyes to the advantages and disadvantages to different traditions! I always veiwed tradition as a family thing that is just passed down but its so much more than that, if family history, its choice and its habit. We talked about what it takes to pass down a tradition and what it takes to stop one, I think the most important lesson that I learned was that traditions arnt always good and traditions arnt just about parties and holiday festivities. I'll explain...
The definition that the book gives us on what tradition is, is as follows
" Beliefs and practices renacted repeatedly from generation to generation and passed down by face to face contact within small groups."
The dictionary says:
"An inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought action or behavior"
The word that we really talked about was behavior, That means that a tradition in a family could be a personality characteristic that defines the family, like being a sports family, or being a sarcastic family. This changed my perspective greatly, traditions are often seen as habits that we just do, becasue we have alwasy done it. It can actually be a damaging thing!? In the scripture we read Mosiah 10:12 about the lamanites and their rebellion becasue of thier belief in the false traditions of thier fathers. It drove them to war and to thier deaths becasue of thier inability to stop the bad habits that were inherited from thier ancestors. So SOME traditions are inherited and have to be conciously stopped if thier are dangerous for the growth and happiness of the succeeding generation. DONT GET ME WRONG! I love traditions! and most are really helpful in the process of strengthening family ties and building unity but i just thought it was important that not all traditions are about the holidays and good memories, some are about habits that we let define our families without thier say and without the action to change it.
But In the book it encourages the establishment of new traditions and the recording of old ones. Some of the fun traditions that it lists are as follows
NEW YEARS
- Go winter camping, sit around a campfire till midnight and share stories from the previous year.
- Have a shrimp fry
- Hang up christmas stocking for refills
VALENTINES DAY
- Do a secret Valentine (like a Secret Santa) and have everyone assigned to someone else
- make valentines mail boxes to tape outside the doors of each family member to leave notes or candies in through out the week
- Find a fun heart shaped treat to have for kids after school
- One of my favorite things was when my sisters delivered flowers to my school just to make me feel special!
APRIL FOOLS
- play kind jookes on one another,
- post jokes up around the house
- participat in a family prank on extended family (GREAT MEMORIES)
- Serve dinner for breakfast and viceversa
INDEPENDANCE DAY
- Decorate kids bikes and wagons to be apart of a parade
- Go to JO city and participate in the festivities
- My dads fieworks and heber fireworks with extended family
- San Fransico with Chads family
THANKSGIVING
- Place candy corn on each plate and ask each family member to name a blessing for each candy
- Have a family story telling time
- Take a group nap after dinner( always with my family)
- Go Christmas shopping for eachother after dinner
CHRISTMAS
- Bread bowl soup with the Merrells
- Go caroling to extended families houses
- Everyone gets matching Pajamas
- Each kid get picked up by parents in the morning and once all kids are picked up they go to the parents room and read the story before the gifts are even seen
- eblesckeebers and hot chocolate
There are so many others....but I wanna hear from YOU! what are some of your favorite traditions???
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