On the third day of Christmas, our family sends to you…belated holiday cheer!

We’re taking our time, spreading out Christmas over the entire weekend. The historic amount of snow changed our plans a bit, so we just finally opened stockings this morning and are of course still eating cookies!

How was your Christmas? Did you do anything new or stick with the old traditions?

What are you eating this Thanksgiving? Are you all about tradition, or always looking for something new to put on the table?

I remember one year as a child when my grandparents took us all to a restaurant for Thanksgiving. It was a lavish buffet which the grownups probably enjoyed immensely. I, however, was mortified that the potatoes had been mashed with the skins on. Not only that, but the cranberries were whole, in some sort of sauce instead of my mom’s smooth, yummy cranberry jello! Oh the horror!

Yes, I’m much more willing to try new things now. But I will admit a strong preference for the old favorites at Thanksgiving – that means cheesy beans and the cranberry jello. Yes, I know that’s very “Minnesota”, but there’s a cranberry cream cheese layer on top…don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it!

If you need a recipe that your family and friends will love, try this one. I can brag about it since it’s from my mother-in-law, not my own creation. 

Granny’s Sweet Potato Casserole

Ingredients:
3 cups cooked mashed sweet potatoes (canned are fine)
½ cup white sugar
½ cup plus 2 ½ T melted butter, divided
2 eggs, well beaten
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt
1/3 cup milk
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup flour
½ cup finely chopped walnuts

Directions:
Combine the mashed potatoes, white sugar, ½ cup of the butter, eggs, vanilla, salt and milk. Mix well and place in a greased 8” square baking pan.

In a small bowl, mix together the remaining 2 ½ T butter, brown sugar, flour and nuts. Distribute evenly over the potato mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Makes 8 servings.

Hope your Thanksgiving is delicious!

Photo Courtesy:
xybermatthew

My husband’s family has been attending the same family camp in Colorado for over 30 years – what an amazing tradition! This was my second time there, and Tate’s first. Many of the families go the same week every year, so there are long-term relationships. It’s fun to hear stories about my husband as a teenager from his friends there, especially as they’re all now bringing their own children to camp. 

I was pregnant last time, in the exhausted first trimester stage, so napped a lot, went to bed early and didn’t do too much hiking. This time I was looking forward to a lot more activity, but uncertain as to how that would work with a 17-month old.

Horseback Riding at Family Camp

My worst fear was being stuck in the basement playroom all week while the rest of the camp was off hiking, fishing, and playing games. Thankfully I had a little attitude adjustment before we left, remembering that a normal day for Tate and I is more or less in a playroom. This one, though, would have new (to us) toys, and be in a beautiful mountain setting with family and friends all around. Plus, someone else would be cooking our meals and doing all the dishes!

The other great thing about family camp was the opportunity for all three of us to be together. At home, it’s pretty common for one of us to take care of Tate so the other can run an errand, get some sleep or just have a break. With a full week together, no “to do” list, and help from grandparents we were able to enjoy family time and even some time for just mom & dad.

Tate loved being around all the other kids, especially his cousins. He seemed to really grow up in just a week. The playroom was indeed a big hit, but so were the pool and waterslide, bowling, and hikes in the stroller (go BOB!).

Do you have a family camp tradition? How does your family get away from the daily grind?

We celebrated Tate’s first birthday this weekend with a family party. Amazing to think it’s already been a year since the same group was at our house to welcome him into the world! That day, we had Tater-Tot Hotdish to celebrate our little “Tater-Tot”. (Here’s a recipe in case you don’t know what that is, i.e. you don’t live here in Minnesota).

This time we had regular tater-tots along with our “down on the farm” lunch: beef sandwiches, corn on the cob and green beans. It was inspired by these cute Old MacDonald party supplies that I found online at Parties 4 Kids. Old MacDonald is one of our favorite songs- for me, because it magically makes Tate stop crying when he’s unhappy in the car or on the changing table.

We had one cake for singing Happy Birthday, blowing out the candle, and for the adults to eat. You’ll notice that candle-blowing required an assist from me, which for some reason ended up like one of those old Primatene Mist commercials. Seriously, three tries and it wasn’t a trick candle! Maybe I have parenting-induced asthma. And yes, one of Tate’s favorite toys is a bag of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. Had he not been allowed to hold it, these pictures would have included tears even if we sang Old MacDonald instead of Happy Birthday. The magic has limits.

Tate’s “smash cake” was courtesy of a local grocery store chain that offers a freebie on a child’s first birthday. (Smart move on their part, since we bought the big cake there too.) As you can see, he did a pretty good job of devouring it! Who needs party games when you can sit around and watch this? In retrospect, it would have been wise to take off his cute farmer shirt and overalls before cake-time.

How was the post-frosting sugar high, you ask? Well, we’re relatively new parents, but wise nonetheless…we went to a wedding right after the party, while Granny & Grandpa took care of Tate. I think we owe them one, but everyone seems to have survived pretty well!

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Yesterday was a special day for our family -we had Tate dedicated in a ceremony at our church. His grandparents served as sponsors. There were 5 other families dedicating their children as well. It was very meaningful to share this event with both our family and also others within our faith community that are in this same phase of life. I hope we can be an encouragement and support to each other in raising our children. What traditions does your church or faith community have for babies?

Being so soon after the holidays, I wasn’t on the ball enough to pull together a formal invitation. With a little more planning, I think I would have chosen one of these – aren’t they beautiful?

Even though we had various family events througout the past week, Christmas seems to have come and gone so quickly! I’m not ready for it to be over yet (partly because that means I have to pack up all the decorations), so let’s just recap the week and decide which events should become permanent family traditions…

First my good friend Angela came with Tate and me to my mom’s house for a couple of days of cookie baking. Just after I finished my post saying that my son was not having cookies for breakfast, Grandma gave Tate his first cookie breakfast. He would like to make that a holiday tradition, I’m sure! My sister was home from college along with two friends who weren’t going home over the holidays. They are international students from China and Korea, and cooked us an amazing dinner! 

Christmas Eve day was just the 3 of us. In the morning we had our holiday card-reading party over breakfast and during Tate’s first nap. The jury’s still out on whether it’s better to read all the cards at once or gradually as they arrive in the mail. All at once was fun, but it took a really long time and it kind of stretches out the fun to open a few each day.

After naptime, we all bundled up and went sledding. It was a beautiful sunny day, and so much fun! Thanks to a cozy hand-me-down snowsuit and shoe covers from his cousin, Tate had a great time playing in the snow. Weather-permitting, that tradition will definitely be carried on again.

After nap #2 (#1 for Mom and Dad), we went to the Christmas Eve service at our church. Back at home I made us a frozen pizza with red and green peppers added on top. Festive, yes. Needs to be a tradition? Probably not. Tate went down to sleep and we had Christmas cookies and cocoa while watching A Christmas Story. Love TNT’s 24-hours of viewing fun!

Christmas morning we opened stockings and Tate’s presents from us- books and a puzzle. He liked them, but frankly found the ribbon just as entertaining and kept trying to close the box instead of removing the present from within. That evening was dinner and presents at my in-laws. My favorite tradition there is singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. The cousins get to decorate the birthday cake with Granny; something Tate will enjoy in a few years.

After that party drew to a close, we drove back down to my mom’s. Tate has a cousin just 2 months younger, and they’re the first grandchildren on my side of the family. Plus, my brother and his girlfriend announced their engagement- welcome to the family, Auntie Em! This first Christmas was extra-special for all of us. The “gift of time” exchange was cool – I’m taking my sister-in-law out for manicures and a trip to the art museum. One brother is taking our sister to the bookstore for chess lessons; it’s always been one of his favorite games. My sister is taking another brother to make food packs for starving children, then out dancing. Sounds like lots more fun traditions are on the way…

When I was little, my parents started a family tradition of a Christmas sleepover. On one night in the weeks preceding Christmas, we would all bring our sleeping bags into the living room and camp out around the tree. By the time we were in high school, Christmas Eve was the only night someone didn’t have a basketball game or some other activity, so that was our sleepover night. I think we only stopped doing them when my parents’ snoring became too loud for us to sleep through. My point is not to embarass them (sorry!) but to recognize that it was a pretty great tradition to have endured so many years.

As a married couple, the only holiday tradition that my husband and I seem to have established is severe procrastion in buying gifts. Now that our son is here, I hope we can do a little better than that…

My younger sister laid the pressure on thick, saying “this is Tate’s first Christmas, you have to start traditions NOW and have them for the rest of his life!” Yikes! Then coincidentally, while she was helping me decorate, we found one of those tiny books (the kind Barnes & Noble has out on the countertops, as if to say “would you like fries with that?”) called Life’s Little Treasure Book of Christmas Traditions.

One that totally cracked us up was “Create a gag gift that is passed on to different family members every Christmas. A complimentary hotel shower cap always brings lots of laughs.” What?! I’m all for gag gifts, but don’t they have to develop organically? I don’t think you can just throw in a random toiletry item and get laughs. But maybe that family is a little more wacky and fun than ours…

One that I definitely want to use as soon as Tate is old enough is “Let the youngest child in the family who’s old enough read the Christmas story on Christmas Eve. Record it on tape and save it for them when they are grown.”

Some other good ones:

• Volunteer as a family to work in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter during the holidays.
• Instead of the usual bedtime stories, read to your children about the Christmas customs in other countries.
• Display prominently the Christmas artwork your child brings home from school. (Wouldn’t it be fun to frame the best ones and replace some of your usual artwork over the holidays?)

What are your favorite family traditions?

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