Boy is it ever tough to try and hang on to tradition. With so many transitions in life, we really have to work at hanging on to at least some of them. Monkey wrenches get thrown in the way like family living out of town, divorce and death and tinier ones like no more chimney, in-laws and less time. I've tried to pass down as many traditions to my kids and Bailee as I can. Most of those traditions came from the Hatfield side of our family as the Hewitt side wasn't quite that "fuzzy!" My Grandma Hewitt, however; always had games for us to play on holidays like button button, who's got the button. Grandma Iva did likewise....guess the number, Bingo and coloring contests. Christmas dinner at Grandma Hewitt's always ended with dishes of melon-balled raspberry sherbet. Grandma Hatfield's always began with prayer, a tradition we continue today at the Thanksgiving tables at Jon and Lisa's. Growing up, we always waited at the top of the stairs for Christmas morning so Mom and Dad could set up all the picture equipment at the bottom. Blinding floodlights would greet us as the stair door opened. I still have those lights! All of our gifts were wrapped..even those from Santa...and I guess I never even realized or cared that it was the same paper. We always had spaghetti Mom had prepared ahead of time. It was easy and allowed us more "opening time." A later tradition started by my niece after a trip to England was the fun of poppers, little cardboard tubes filled with a paper hat, a prize and a fortune. We'd all pull the ends of our poppers and wear the stupid crowns throughout dinner.Now, there are no crowns, no dinner, no family. On the flip side...and thankfully there is one, my kids had popcorn balls, Easter (paint) buckets,birthday goodie bags, and the joy of winning a holiday prize. It made no difference if it was a wrapped box of tissue or a brand new toothbrush.
It's not so easy to get together now. The next generations have miles to travel, in-laws to share, babies to pack up, more places to be and less time to be there. So, the biggest traditions we need to keep alive are the memories. Every holiday invokes a memory of Christmases past and opens an opportunity for new stories to make their way as traditions. Soon Thanksgiving will be here, the day will start with hunting for the guys and the Macy's parade for me....Bailee will be off to Daddy's...sniff, sniff :-( We'll gather at Chestnut Ridge, we'll pray, we'll eat, we'll laugh..( sounds like a movie).and eat some more................and lots of the stories will be told!
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