Traditions

My sister, Jenny, got me thinking more about something I have really been thinking about lately. It is great to have fun and play around with the kids. I hope they will look back on their childhood and remember feelings they had (hopefully only the good ones), but I want them to have good memories of things or events...traditions!

My mother made the best cinnamon rolls growing up. I remember any time it snowed (rare in Apple Valley, CA) Mom would make cinnamon rolls. Well, living in Phoenix, AZ...we do it when it rains...still rare, but Monsoon season works me every year! It really should be classified to winter rain, but how can you tell a child "no" when they use the "tradition" card on you?

Saturday was a beautiful day. Our high was 83 degrees and overcast all day with a beautiful breeze. Wouldn't you know that Kaeleigh caught all those 20 sprinkles that dropped from the sky and mandated the cinnamon roll tradition. I had been craving them, so I was happy to oblige.

Here are some of the traditions we had when I was growing up:

~We would go out to Bob's Big Boy on the FIRST RAINY MONDAY NIGHT of the SEASON for FHE.

~Getting ice cream at Thrifty's on the Saturday of General Conference. (We didn't get it on TV where we lived and HAD to go to the church bldg. We got a scoop for every session on Saturday we went to...bribery!)

~Going on "TURNS" with Grandma and Grandpa Larkin (spending a couple days with them without parents...usually alone unless we wanted to bring a sibling. We NEVER forgot whose TURN it was!)

(some holiday traditions...)
~Making Halloween pumpkin cookies with Grandma Faylor...with candy corn faces.

~Every Christmas season, the girl cousins would help decorate Grandma and Grandpa Faylor's christmas tree (w/ Gma) while the boy cousins would hang the lights outside (w/ Gpa)!

~Driving to Christmas lights in Chino and walking through the neighborhood filled with lights.

~Christmas caroling and delivering cinnamon rolls to family friends!!!

~Christmas eve...Faylor family togetherness. Dinner (potato casserole...mmm!), re-enacting the nativity (w/ costumes...fighting every year over who got to be Mary) and singing for Santa to come. He'd always bring us a gift and a candy cane every Christmas eve.

Now, for my family...I'm sure we Vehar's have more than these few, but I am struggling to think of them! The only few that jump out at me are:

~the first day of school we take our kids out to dinner (used to be ice cream, but Deegan can't do that now...PEANUTS!)

~We take our kids every summer to BYU. We buy them a new shirt at the BYU bookstore and walk the campus ("to familiarize them", as Ryan says). We take them with Greg Vehar (Ryan's Dad's cousin) through Legacy Hall and the kids love taking the tour year after year all the way through the locker room and exercise facility. They then get to play football in the Indoor Practice Facility. After that, we daringly risk Deegan's life at the BYU creamery. We started taking turns with someone sitting outside with Deegan...YES IT IS WORTH IT!

So, do me a favor and share with me...what are some of your favorite traditions...from growing up or some you do now with your kids...not necessarily holiday traditions only. I would like to find some really good ones to start with my family. It just doesn't seem like we have enough.