Create our own traditions and rituals

Have been thinking of what traditions we want to set up for Christmas time. My list so far is:

• Advent calendars
• Making a gingerbread house
• A real tree, which we decorate as a family
• Making a snowman (well as soon as any snow comes)
• Christmas Day being all about us as a family at home
• Stockings at the end of the bed (need to get Willow one)
• Pressies on Christmas morning
• Lovely Christmas roast dinner
• Special Christmas Eve dinner – cheeses!
• ‘The Night Before Christmas’ read to the kids on Christmas Eve
• Personalised Christmas cards with pics of the kids on
• Taking the kids to see Santa

Am sure I am missing loads of stuff! I am getting very excited this year. Although last year was Oren’s first Christmas there was a lot of other stuff going on in the background which made it all feel a bit strange, plus I was pregnant and ill and unable to eat which spoilt the season a bit. This year Oren should be able to open his own pressies and eat proper Christmas Dinner! Plus if all goes to plan, Christmas Day we will also start weaning Willow, so itll be special for her for two reasons!

Lol. Did I mention how excited I was….?!

BashfulC and I were chatting at the weekend about various weekend plans for the forthcoming weeks, and we suddenly realise that we have a tradition which we havent previously realised!

We have visited Oundle Maze for the past 2 years since we moved to the area, and we intend to go again this year too. Its a great family event, lots of fun for mum and dad as well as the kids!

Ive looked on the Maize Maze website and cant find Onndle listed as a host location for 2009… which has me a bit worried… but Ive checked and there is a maze in Spalding or one in Cambridge, so if we have to we will head to one of those to keep up the Maize Maze tradition! Really hope Oundle does still run it this year though, as it wont quite be the same if it isnt Oundle… so many memories of going there in August 2008 before I was pregnant, and in Sept 2009 when we took Oren as a baby.

Last week we had our first family beach day. It was such a brilliant day and we will definitely be making sure we do this every year, and hopefully more than once a year.

is the anniversary of the very first time that BashfulC and I met. Feels like an absolute lifetime ago, although it really hasnt been that long…

Easter Egg hunts
Easter was always a bit of a non-event when I was a kid, as my parents thought it was commercialised nonsense and that eggs were overpriced. True or not, Easter just felt like one of those days when everyone was having fun and my parents were making us feel guilty for even glancing at all the shiny eggs in the supermarket.

So partly to make up for the lack of fun I had at Easter as a kid, I would like to celebrate the fun of Easter by having an Easter Egg hunt each year (where possible). Ideally this will be out in the garden, as any excuse to get the kids in the fresh air and playing outside.

A family holiday every year
even if it is only a short one and not very far away from home. I just believe that getting away from the home as a family unit for some quality time together is really healthy. We managed to do it last year a couple of times – once to France and once to Wales, and this year we are having a couple of days in Yorkshire.

Time for reading every day
During the first 0-4 months when Oren was born, I was quite good at sitting down each day with him to read a book. Then we went through a blip and we havent done nearly enough reading with him over the last 6 months. I became really aware of this about a fortnight ago, and am now making time to go through a book with him each day, and daddy reads to him before bed every night. Oren is loving the ‘Thats not my…’ range, and is fantastic at finding all the different touchy feely bits on the pages, so I will try and pick up a couple more of those books too.

Beach Day! That we make the most of the nice weather and when the sun is shining take the whole family to the seaside! I cant wait to take Oren for the first time and see what he makes of playing in the sand :o) I have very romantic images of us as a family of 4 strolling down the beach, hand in hand.

Stawberry Picking! I know we will be growing lots of our own fruit and veg, but Id really like to do this one. I went Strawberry picking once when I was a child, and I still remember it as being a great day out, and I always wanted to do it again and never did. A healthy happy family outing this one!

In the lead up to Christmas, I would like BashfulC, myself and the kids to sit down and make a Gingerbread house together! I just think this will be a fun way to mark the build up to Christmas each year, and is the kind of thing I would have loved to do when I was a kid!

I have some ideas of traditions I would like to begin, so I am joining this goal too :o)