But Mom, It's Tradition...

When I was a new mom, I didn't think intentionally about the idea of creating special family traditions, mostly because I didn't realize the importance of them in the lives of my children.  It wasn't until my 17 year old daughter expressed, "But Mom, It's a Family Tradition!" that I realized the importance of simple family traditions.

From the time my daughter was born, she had participated in our family's annual "Christmas Cookie Party," with her siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. In 2010, not only was she, her older siblings, and many of her cousins reaching adulthood, but it was an especially busy & stressful Christmas season. My sister and I reasoned, "the kids are getting too old for this tradition anyway and it would make our lives a whole lot easier if we just skipped the Christmas Cookie Party this year." I know, you can probably see the writing on the wall and you are right, our announcement did not go over too well, to say the least! Not only did my daughter sigh the words I mentioned earlier, but her older sister and a few of the cousins, were not pleased either! It didn't take long for my sister and I to change our attitude and muster up the energy to begin the cookie party preparations! Next week, I will share about some of our Thanksgiving family traditions.  And after Thanksgiving, I will blog about the details of our family Cookie Party Tradition! But for now, I just wanted to share how I believe that creating simple & fun family traditions become a very special part of the legacy we create as moms in building happy family memories! I hope I have sparked some interest in you to start being intentional about the idea of creating special family traditions! You won't regret it and either will your children!