FAMILY TRADITIONS

HAPPY FRIDAY EVE TO ALL! This is something that I started saying every Thursday since teaching over 3 years ago. I don't know why, but it always seems to make the day and the week for that matter seem so much better! It's funny how something so small can turn into such a big tradition whether it's something that happens weekly, monthly or yearly. But that's the whole point of today's post....starting family traditions.

It's no secret Mike and I LOVE holidays and traditions, we've mentioned this a few times! Mike and I have our small rituals that we try to do. Throughout most of the year, Fridays are Friday Night Movie Night with homemade popcorn. We've been doing this since college. We even continued to do this when he transferred to school out of state...we would rent the same movie and either be on the phone or on Skype watching our movie together. The best part of this was trying to start the movie at the same time...ready? One, two, three, PLAY! Oh my, we were such nerds!

Saturday is usually our coffee day. We get up, go to Starbucks and run our errands or go straight to the Farmers Market if they're open. Or if we can't do this in the morning, sometimes we'll make it part of our dessert in the evening. If we do this, sometimes we'll go to one of the local coffee shops we love. Our coffee trips are definitely a must in our house that we hope to continue for the foreseeable future. It's one of our weekly indulgences that we really enjoy.

We also try to make each Holiday special as well. The one holiday that we don't really enjoy is New Years. I don't know why, but it's usually built up to be this amazing night and always ends up disappointing.

Here are some of the other holiday traditions we love to do together.

We never go out for Valentine's Day, we always stay in and make our own sweetheart dinner together.

Dying eggs for Easter is a must! This past year we had to include Baby B, hence the painting of the belly like a decorated egg.

The 4th of July is always different, but usually consists of the three F's: food, friends & fireworks. This year we did just that with a little bit of pool time.

Labor Day is more of a holiday to me, than Mike I think. This holiday symbolizes the end of summer and a HUGE welcome to fall! My FAVORITE time of year. I get all our fall decorations out, make pumpkin bars and usually the Pumpkin Spice Latte is back at Starbucks :)

Every year for Halloween, we carve pumpkins, roast the seeds, rent scary movies and either make a trip to the pumpkin patch or do some other Halloween related activity. Two years ago, instead of going to a pumpkin patch we drove up to Gettysburg, PA for a Ghost Tour of the town. We had a lot of fun doing this! They also offered Ghost Hunts :)

Something we've started just since we've been married is spending Thanksgiving with my sister and her family from Arizona. We don't go to Arizona for this. Every other year we all travel to California and spend the week together with another close family who use to be my sister's neighbor. We look forward to this each time. We spend our time on the beach, shopping (Black Friday!), cooking and playing games. We're going this year and can't wait!!! On the off years, we still spend Thanksgiving together, but through Skype. Yep, we try and all eat dinner together through our computer. I LOVE it!

Christmas, ah Christmas....pure love! Baking cookies, Christmas movies, cinnamon rolls, peppermint mochas, shopping, fires, caroling, gift giving, celebrating Christ....I could go on and on! Two years ago, we spent the weekend before Christmas in NYC with some of our closest friends. We had so much fun! It was a bit crowded, but completely worth it!

This year we are so excited to start our Christmas in July. Every year I somehow get one season ahead of myself. When it's winter, I'm ready for spring; when it's summer, I'm ready for fall....it really doesn't make much sense. Anyways, I've been getting the itch for Christmas the last couple of weeks. And it's not the miserably cold weather and ice that I miss (well maybe a little, but only because we can't catch a break with this crazy heat!!!), it's the whole cozy, snuggled up, watching Christmas movies and making cookies all day sorta thing that I miss. So in order to scratch that itch....we are starting a Christmas in July day. We thought it would be the perfect time to start our own quirky little tradition, especially now that we have expanded our little family of two to three with Kensington. Stay tuned, because I will certainly be posting about it next weekend!!!!