Family Traditions

Sometimes I feel like my family doesn't have many traditions, especially the big holiday ones.  We've had stir fry for Thanksgiving dinner and chimichangas for Christmas.  But I've realized that there were a lot of little everyday traditions.  I've been thinking about the traditions that I want to pass on to my children, and special home-made birthday cakes are one of them.  I think I'll make Neil the bunny cake I had for my first birthday party.  He won't care on his birthday, but I know that the cake is meaningful to me now.  Maybe it will eventually be meaningful to him, too.  I think I'd also like to sometimes make pancakes in shapes like Grandma Natta used to do.  I like that Grandma Tanner had a particular song she always sang to us when she rocked us: "Still Sweeter Every Day" (#474 in the Hymns of Glorious Praise hymnal).  Grandma tried a different song with Kristin one time, and Kristin corrected her and started singing Grandma's song just in case she had forgotten how it went.  This morning I was thinking about the "head acher, eye peeper" game that my family plays with babies.  I don't remember where it came from, but it's part of my childhood and it's unique. It will be interesting to find out what family traditions Matt has, too. 

I'm eager to teach Neil how to do things.  Some of my favorite childhood memories are of people teaching me to do things, and the skills have been valuable, too.  Dad and Grandpa taught me about fishing.  Dad also taught me softball skills and how not to "hammer like a girl."  Grandpa taught me to blow in my hands to whistle (like a conch shell).  Grandmother Wilmoth taught me to whistle by blowing into empty bottles.  Mom taught me to follow a recipe, to sew and to crochet.  Grandma let me experiment with all sorts of things--typing, cooking (I made tomato soup out of ketchup packets, attempted cooking pancakes over pans heated with hot tap water, and created a really nasty mass of microwaved cheddar cheese and graham crackers), embroidering--even though I made messes.  Everyone in the family encouraged my many hobbies no matter how unusual: photography, costume making, first aid, soap carving, candy making, weaving, and many, many more.  I come from a family of makers, and I hope Neil is one, too.

Matt has told me that he sometimes thinks about explaining to Neil how things work.  I tend to think about explaining how people work: emotions, social customs, behaviors, and manners.  For example, why did people laugh when he said something serious?  Why poopoo jokes are not appropriate at the dinner table.  How using polite words like "please" and "thank you" make people more likely to do what you want.  I think we're both hoping our son is curious about the world, and we're eager to encourage him.