Reliving Our Childhood Traditions

I feel like weird family traditions are a dying thing, and I’m not sure why. It could be because our life is always so busy that we either:

A. forget about them or

B. never make time to do them when we say we will.

For us, it’s B.

This year, I wanted to make that change, especially since I knew we were moving right after the beginning of the year.

When we were growing up as kids, we always went over to my grandma’s house to make holiday cookies with the entire family. It was always a great time and all of the kids loved it. The house always smelled like sugar and frosting and the warmth from the oven made the atmosphere one to smile about. It was a place where you didn’t fight with one another, even if your sister stole the color you wanted to use and you always went home with way too many goodies.

When I moved to North Carolina though, I never made it back to be able to decorate cookies with my family when they planned the day to get together. Then, when we moved back and I was able to actually within 20 minutes to where I could make it, my great-grandparents started having health issues and my grandma didn’t want to leave them alone. So, she sold her house so she could spend most of her time up north with them to help them more. No one else ended up taking over the task of hosting, and our home was way to small to have guests over.

It was a weird couple of years for me if I am honest. I felt like I missed out on so much with my family, and most of the time I think they still thought I was living out of state with as much as I was traveling for work. I really just wanted AJ to be able to take part in one of my favorite traditions.

So, when we decided that we were going to move out of state this year, I made the executive decision that we would host (and by host I meant my sister was going to} cookie decorating so AJ could take part in it with everyone. Since she bought the house we grew up in from our dad, I thought it was the perfect place to get sentimental… And I am glad we did it. Even though it wasn’t a full day thing, and even with burning two trays of sugar cookies, it was nice to have everyone together. Even our great-grandparents came and joined in. AJ loved it, and it was honestly amazing to be able to relive our childhood again.

Do you have a family tradition that you always do? Tell me about it in the comments.