Great Family Traditions

The best family traditions for the Egbert clan are those that involve a lot of laughter, making fun of one another (lovingly, of course) and building memories for a lifetime.

One of our favorites leading up to Christmas is gathering around the island in the kitchen and decorating our gingerbread house, which is constructed out of graham crackers.  We have a ton of candy and lots of icing for everyone.  We proceed to make the most hideous gingerbread house ever.  We never have a plan (you couldn’t plan something so ugly), because we can’t agree on a unified approach.  I get chastised each year for being too organized (imagine that) and lacking spontaneity (meaning I’m not A.D.D.).  I prefer to remind them that they all lack discipline, forethought and planning.

Usually each person focuses on decorating one area, while helping themselves to generous quantities of candy.  At some point, icing is being slapped on and candy is being thrown at the house (by that time I’ve been forced to leave the area).  My son has usually created something objectionable (which needs to be removed before any company comes…who knew you could make a pooping reindeer out of candy and icing).  The resulting product looks like a candy store blew up.  We laugh, we insult each other’s work, and steal candy off the house (especially if it ruins somebody else’s well thought out pattern).   One year our daughter was in a particularly patriotic mood, so she spelled out “U-S-A” in large letters on the side of the house.  At the end, when she showed us all her handiwork, she hadn’t even noticed that she misspelled it, reading “S-U-A.”  We laughed until we couldn’t breathe.

The memories created over all these years have been priceless.  As new members have joined our family, they are brought into the tradition and they help us add to the story that is our family.  This fun tradition really doesn’t cost us much – a couple of hours and several bags of candy.  But we all love doing it together and wouldn’t miss it for the world.

What are the traditions that are most important for your family and what makes them so important to you?