Traditions, Holidays, Recipes & Love

Traditions have always been special to me. There's something about traditions that bring family and friends closer together. Typically, we see traditions occur more around the holdiays than in normal, everyday life - but they're fun to have nonetheless.

Yesterday, I spent a bit of time chatting with my sweet Aunt Carolyn yesterday. After our call, I started thinking about the importance of the simple everyday traditions. My Aunt Carolyn rocks my world. She came into my life as my babysitter when we lived in Illinois. Later, she continued in my life when she married my Uncle Ernest and became my Aunt. Over the years, I have in turn, babysat her children - and they've babysat (well kind of) my darling neice Arissa. Someday, when my family starts to grow (No, we're not pregnant! No, we're not trying! ) they'll have the opportunity to babysit our children. Something so simple, and service rendering has become a tradition of sorts in my life.

Caroline asked me what Steve and I still needed for our new home/life. In reality, we don't need anything. We're both very fortunate, and we've both had our own homes. The things we registered for were either to replace the things that needed replacing, or were items so that we could build 'our' collection versus mine and his.

What I would LOVE from everyone, is your favorite tradition. What is it? Is it personal, private, or a family tradition? Why is it your favorite? Here are a few traditions that I've come to love:

1. General Conference - It's not only a time to build your spirit, and to gain additional knowledge from our leaders and Prophet. I love to have homemade cinnamon rolls in the morning, and everyone's favorite lunch foods in teh afternoon. It gives us something additional to look forward too.
2. Celebration Plate - A few years ago, I made a "celebration" plate, and a matching booklet to record when it is used. I love to use this plate to serve celebratory stuff on every day celebrations, birthdays, cupcakes at work, promotions and anything else that's celebratory. I love that I can look back in the booklet to see when it was used, and remember all of the fun times I've had with friends, coworkers, and family.
3. Birthday Dinner - For as long as I can remember, when it's your birthday, you get to choose what the family has for dinner. Growing up, it's normally something that Mom makes. Sometimes as we got older, and everyone's schedule gets busy we would go out to eat. But, it's so fun knowing that on your day - you get to choose!
4. Thanksgiving Thankfullness - Whenever I'm home for THanksgiving, our family goes around the table during dinner sharing what they're thankful for. This coming year, as Steve and I celebrate our first Thanksgiving together, I'm looking forward to continuing this tradition. We have a few friends who we're having over for dinner, and I'm sending each of them 5 slips of paper on which they should write what they are thankful for. They'll go into a jar, and before we eat dinner, we'll take turns reading them out loud.
5. Birthday Wake-Up Calls - When I moved out of my parents home (over and over again) it's always fun to be woken up by your parents calling to tell you Happy Birthday. It reminds me that they love me enough to get up extra early (different time zones) and that they thought enough to call.

What are your favorite tried and true recipies? Are there special foods you have at certain holidays or events in your life? There are SO many of mine, but here are some of my favorite family foods:

1. Christmas Bread - Cherry Christmas Bread reminds me of the holidays with my family - and the fun silly things we've done.
2. Cranberry Salad - Again, another of Mom's DELICIOUS treats. Mom makes this YUMMY Cranberry Salad. It looks SO unusual - but it is SO yummy!
3. Party Chicken and/or Rice Casserole - Again from Mom's fantastic cooking skills! It's a SUPER simple recipe, but it reminds me of home everytime!

Please take a moment to email me your favorite tradition and/or recipe. I LOVE to cook, and having special recipes from each of you would be the bomb! You can email them to us at steveandheatherales at yahoo.com (use @ for at). I'll be glad to compile them and share them back with you all!

There's something about traditions, holidays, special recipes that just mean love to me.

Love,
~ heather (& Steve)