What are some of your family traditions? What are the traditions you remember most as a child growing up? Do you still do them today? What traditions do you have that are holiday-related, and which aren't?

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These are some non-holiday traditions from my childhood:
-My dad always made homemade pizza on Sunday nights
-At our lake cabin, it was a tradition to ALWAYS jump in the lake on Memorial Day weekend, no matter how cold the water was

Why can't I remember more? What are some of yours?

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1 - We have hot dogs, milkshakes and popcorn for dinner every Sunday night.
2 - At Christmas, the kids always have clues to follow to find their last present.

The clue thing is from my husband's family. They have always done it, and even now, we get a clue-filled poem with our gift from his mom and dad eah year.

1. My dad would get us donuts every Sat. morning for breakfast while we watched cartoons. And then we would get to work cleaning the house.

2. We would eat supper together and do prayer requests and pray as a family. Mom kept a prayer list so we could see how prayers were answered.

3. Christmas - before opening presents - my dad would read the Christmas story from Luke 2. We also have a Jesus stocking.

Every Saturday we would eat at Pizza Hut after church for supper.

For my family
1. The girls and I make Christmas sugar cookies and decorate them.
2. We look at the Christmas light display at a local cemetary that is pretty. Sometimes we go to another one, but that one costs money.
3. The girls help put the tree up and put the decorations on the day after Thanksgiving.

Growing up Traditions:
* Dunkin Donuts on Sunday after church
* Mexican restaurant on Saturday nights
* Noche Buena celebration (Christmas eve)
* Midnight mass

Current Traditions:
* Friday night is always pizza/movie night. My oldest daughter has started inviting friends over for this special family tradition
* Summer vacation at the beach (still trying to find the "perfect" spot)
* Dinner together most nights
* Kids wait for the school bus in front of the house with their dad
* Cookie decorating party week before Christmas
* Decorating the Christmas tree
* Noche Buena meal on Christmas eve

Growing up but I plan to continue
*Special day 1 day just mom and me doing what ever I wanted to do.
*Soft box, tree ornament that santa left a little gift inside. Only thing we could open before mom and dad got up.

I am drawing a blank too.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006 &

Organizer of the Coupon Clippers of Tacoma

Many have fallen away since my mom died and as the grandkids grow up, get married, start their own traditions. It used to be that we opened gifts on Xmas eve as a kid. Then, as adults, we all went to mom's to celebrate & open gifts on Xmas eve. But, in the 10 years she's been gone, we've had lots of differences. This year will be the biggest as my dad's health prevents him from coming home this year, so many of us are flying to Florida for the weekend after Xmas. But not everyone can go. So the rest of us are going to try to get together another time. A real mess.

One tradition from DH's side of the family that we keep: the last gift we give each other is hidden in the tree. We each have to search the tree for the gift. I've found gold chains or rings dangling from branches. He usually finds a CD or whatever I deem light or small enough to hide in the tree. Sometimes jewelry for him as well. It's fun to try to find.

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That is a really cute tradition. I am just afraid if I did that with my kids the tree would be on the floor!

A favorite childhood tradition: My dad was a teacher, so on the first snow day of the year he would always make cinnamon rolls. He would give my sister and I our own little lump of dough to make our own shapes.

We have loads of traditions we keep now...

Every Friday night is "family night." My DH's family comes over and we make dinner together and play games.

Before Christmas we all meet (DH's family) at a local shopping area known for Christmas lights. We have dinner at a restaurant and walk around to look at all the lights and decorations.

My kids and I always make roll-out cookies together before christmas and decorate them together.

I wrap up Christmas books for every day of advent (some are ours and some I wrap are from the library!). The kids take turns opening one and we read a Christmas story every day until Christmas Eve (then we always read The Night Before Christmas and Luke 2).

For Valentine's Day, I always make my DH and kids a special meal. I decorate the table and make it very fancy. I put a small little gift on each of their plates and light candles. My boys just love it.

Every Saturday morning I make the kids pancakes for breakfast. The rest of the week we do eggs and toast or something like that. Then after breakfast we go to the library and then to the farmer's market during the season.