Traditions

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I want to create positive memories for my kids. Realistically, I know that life in a family has major ups and downs (often all within a five minute time period), but I really want my kids to be able to look back on their childhoods and remember fun times we had as a family.

My sister in law and I were talking about this and she shared some traditions that they have started in their family to help accomplish it. We have adopted some as well, so I wanted to share...

Tuesday Night by Candlelight--every Tuesday we have a candlelight dinner. (This was Shelly's brilliant idea, I can't take any credit.) The kids LOVE it!!!! They are so excited every Tuesday to set the table and find all the candles in the house to put on it. They have been asking to do it every night, but I tell them it wouldn't be special if we did that. I'm not sure how it will work in the summer when it stays light for so long, but we will see.

Family Movie night--We have just done this once, but again it was a huge hit. We all got in our jammies and went down to the basement with blankets, sleeping bags and pillows to watch "Monsters vs. Aliens." We turned off all the lights and Ryan hooked up the surround sound so it was like our own little theater. I forgot about the popcorn (maybe on purpose...) but no one seemed to notice and we had a great time.

Reading together--okay, obviously this isn't a new family tradition--we have always been big readers. But back in July we started reading together at night. The kids all pile into my bed and we spend time reading. We started reading the Little House on the Prairie series and the kids all love it. Lincoln doesn't always participate, but he loves it when we let him hear a chapter. It has become one of my favorite times of the day, too. Ryan laughs when I tell the kids "Just one chapter tonight!" because they can always talk me into reading three or four. It's just such a sweet, special time we have together to wrap up our day.

These are just a few traditions we have started, but I am always looking for more. I can already tell in the last few months since Ryan has been done with school and we have been able to really focus on our family that the mood in our house has been a lot better. We definitely still have our moments, but we seem to be so much happier lately and I think that these little moments of family time have a lot to do with it.