Hello sweet friends,
I have a question for all my sweet peeps out there. Do you like having the traditional Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter every year? I’m becoming a “break all the traditions” kind of gal these days.
This morning as I was getting ready for work, I looked out my bedroom window, and the wind was blowing the colorful fall leaves back and forth on the trees and most were hanging on for dear life, not wanting to let go. Which then made me realize I am like one of those leaves, holding on to things some good some bad not really wanting to let go. You see tradition is a big thing in most families, and that is fine, but why do we do it? Because our parents did it, so we did it and now our kids do it and on and down through the generations. So, with that said, I quickly realized my favorite holidays are approaching very soon. And like other families, we have had a lot of losses these past few years. Holidays will never be the same for many families around the globe. It got me thinking about transitional traditions. It is not that hard, to slowly transition from traditional Turkey for Thanksgiving to something else like Pumpkin Lasagna for example. Yes! I did make that… yes it was more different than anything else I had ever made before. But we all still remember it. We are not forgetting the memories in these traditions. We are just making the memories better. If you allow yourself to change things up a bit it can get interesting, and if nothing else it can give your family something different to talk about at dinner.
Out With the old and in with the new
Losing some old traditions but adding in a few new ones can be fun, you can put your own spin on it. This year instead of using the same ornament on your Christmas tree, use something more personal, something that reflects a place you have been that was fun and exciting. Or something you like to do, there are so many options.
In years past I lived in a beautiful Queen Ann Victorian house on the Ohio river, for about 15 years and we had a lot of things we collected over those years. It was so hard leaving my beautiful house, and I have found that all the things I fell in love with, in my other homes, I was able to incorporate into my current home, when we sat down to design our farmhouse floor plan, I had the ability to add all those ideas and details to make my current home the best one yet. That made the transitional part way easier than I thought it would. That is when I realized that I could switch out some traditions as well.
Try it this year and see where it takes you. It may be the best thing you ever did.
Blessings
