Help For Growing Families – Traditions

At this time of year there are many traditions that my family and I hold dear that come around again to bless us all. Traditions are a very important part of our family. I come by this belief naturally because I grew up in a family rich in traditions – some of which are still in practice to this day. They keep us close and create a common bond for us in a day and time that seeks to fragment us with busy schedules and distant locations. My brothers, sister, parents and I, and our families, always come back to our traditions each year and find a comfort and joy in the continuity of life and love that they bring.

From the beginning of our marriage, Jeff and I have sought to start and continue traditions for our own family. In the beginning, we took some of each of our favorite traditions from our separate families and blended them into our own set of traditions for our new family. As the years have gone by, we have added new traditions which have become very special to us. Sometimes the kids decide that something is a tradition just because we did it once and they liked it. Then we hear “but we have to do it – it’s tradition!” I love hearing this, because then I know that they feel the bond and the importance of family moments the way that I hope that they will.

I would encourage you, if you haven’t already done so, to start some new traditions for your family this year. The children really thrive on them and so do we as adults. We have traditions for things all through the year, but our Christmastime traditions are extra special to us. It may be something as simple as baking a special recipe each year together or reading the Christmas story from the Bible on Christmas Eve. It might be a special shopping trip each year with Daddy or Mommy, or going caroling around your neighborhood, followed by cookies and hot chocolate. It might be donating your family’s time, talent or treasures to those in need, or baking snowman cookies to eat while watching Frosty the Snowman for the first time of the year. The possibilities are endless – only you know what will work for your family – and the rewards are so very special and will bless your family for years and years to come.

Looking for more tips? – visit Mother Hen at Ship Full O’ Pirates to find the list of participants in this week’s Help For Growing Families.

Have a fun and tradition-filled day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Bah! Humbug!

photo courtesy of Corbis

What is more Scroogish than tornadoes in December?

That’s what we just experienced here tonight.

I had just put the two littlest to bed and was dozing a bit myself when I was awakened by thunder – really loud thunder. I listened to the rain falling for a little while longer and then decided to drag myself out of bed and out into the living room as I heard the rest of the children (who had previously been sent to bed) congregating there – always a given in a thunderstorm. It was now around 11 pm.

As I emerged from the bedroom, I saw Jeff sitting on the couch, surrounded by children, staring at his laptop. “Come and look at this”, he said. Did I see a grin playing around his lips? I am then informed that a tornado warning has just been issued just south of us, and come look at this nifty red box on the map. Being married to a meterologist has it’s interesting moments. He was especially gleefull that he had predicted the precise location of the tornado just seconds before it popped on his screen.

I, on the other hand, not so gleefull, went into the more appropriate caution and concern mode – i.e. “Should we be panicky here?” Jeff assured me that we were just north of the box, so we weren’t in danger. Just north of the box was a little too close for me, so I wasn’t necessarily convinced. We turned on the weather radio and continued watching the progress on the computer. They were predicting a tornado path which took it right over our son, Ryan, and through some other towns where several friends lived. We put in a call to Ryan – he was watching the news channel and aware of the situation.

By 11:30 the red warning box had moved off to the east a little and Jeff was telling us that there was no danger around us. This was reassuring until the tornado sirens started to go off. I was standing outside the back door watching the sky when they did. Why were they going off when we weren’t even in the warning area? At this point, I was getting a bit nervous. Should we get in the closet or not? Jeff kept saying that there was nothing around us, but it’s hard to feel confident when those eerie sirens are blaring at you. We kept watching the sky and the radar for a tense 5-10 minutes – until the sirens ceased. We finally decided that they must have sounded them for those in the eastern part of the city, who were closer to the danger area or maybe just because our county was in the warning zone.

Just about the time that we were starting to relax and send the children back to bed – around 11:50 – when the weather service was reporting that the warning had been cancelled, we start getting automated phone calls from our police captain that there is a tornado warning in the area until midnite – first on the home phone, then on our cell phones, one after another. What in the world was that all about? Had someone locally spotted another one? Should we get in the closet? The radar assured us that there was nothing around us, so we just listened and watched for another 10 minutes and then decided that they somehow were really off in their timing – not a reassuring thought.

We called Ryan and checked on him. He was fine. He had heard that the tornado had passed close by, but they hadn’t seen anything.

We finally did get the kids back to bed, only to have a couple of them back up again when the next round of thunder started up – at least no red boxes this time. Tornadoes in December – bah, humbug!

Hope you’re having a better night where you are!

Blessings,
Nancy