Sunday, October 9, 2011

Family Traditions: Small Town vs. Big City

One of the best things about becoming a new parent is starting our own family traditions. I was discussing this with Andi the other day and apparently, our two families had very different traditions growing up.

I grew up in a small town and one of our very favorite things to do when we were little was to pack everyone up in the car on Friday or Saturday night and "go for a ride" around town. The whole family would go - my parents, sister, brother and I - and we'd drive around town really slow, looking at houses and talking. Sometimes my dad would make us malts for the road or we'd get to stop at Dairy Queen as a treat. I'd always get a Peanut Buster Parfait; sometimes a Buster Bar. It was so special.

I mentioned this to Andi the other day when he took a wrong turn and we ended up making a loop around our neighborhood area. "This could be our route when we go for rides with Tory!" I said. He thought it was the lamest idea ever.

But it was so fun when were little! Looking back, I'm sure it was a cheap way to get out of the house and keep us kids entertained on a weekend night. But we didn't see it that way, we treated it as an adventure we did together as a family.

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Halloween's coming up and I'm excited to start a trick-or-treating tradition with Tory. When we were little kids, we'd trick-or-treat around our neighborhood, then make stops at our relatives' houses showing off our costumes. Our grandparents and aunts and uncles always had special Halloween treats for us. Final destination was our grandparent's house where we'd meet all of our cousins, take pictures in our costumes then head downstairs to dump all of our candy out to see what everyone collected. It never failed - I'd eat so much candy, I'd throw up in the car on the drive home.

I think we'll take Tory over to Grandma Janie's house and Great-Grandma Marion's to show off her costume. But things are a little different here; it's a big city vs. small town and people live farther than a few miles away from each other. It's important to me (and hopefully someday for her) to establish special things our family does together. It doesn't have to be something extravagant or cost money, just something that creates special memories for her when she looks back at her childhood.

What are some of your favorite family traditions?

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