Tradition

I am a traditionalist, I admit it. I like family traditions. I don't particularly like it when holiday traditions are changed. A few years ago my parents decided to stop holding the Hislop Family Christmas Party on Christmas Eve. It is now the Saturday before Christmas Eve. I enjoy the party and seeing Santa and exchanging presents, but something is amiss...it is NOT the traditional party I grew up with. Our tradition was changed. It is now a NEW tradition and it has been a few years and I admit it is starting to grow on me, it really helps to have Kurt and AJ in my life; this is the only Hislop Christmas Party they have ever experienced so the Saturday before Christmas Eve is our new tradition...and nobody better mess with it! :)

I have been thinking about this because our Thanksgiving tradition was changed this year. This year we went out to eat. It was a nice meal, and it was nice to be with family, but it didn't FEEL like Thanksgiving. We didn't have a prayer, we didn't have yams or cranberry salad or rolls. The Stoffers weren't there. We didn't look through the ads or visit as some watched football, we didn't play any games. We didn't have leftovers to nibble on later in the day. It just wasn't the same.

Kurt and I talked it over and we decided from now on we will have Thanksgiving dinner at our house. That is the only way I can think of to preserve a family tradition I hold dear. We talked it over with my parents and they were actually happy one of their children wanted to take it over. Anyone will be welcome at our home for Thanksgiving. If it is the "off" year for my siblings and thier in-laws I hope they come to our home, but if they choose not to, I will still have my traditional Thanksgiving. I know traditions can be stressful for some and for others they just are not important, but they are to me and I would like to establish a few for our family so I guess I will start with cooking Thanksgiving dinner.