Lets be Honest Mamas | Family Traditions

Its that time of the month again. No, No. Not that. Honest Mamas time! The lovely www.elementsofellis.com asked me to be apart of this small, beautiful, honest online mama group called Lets be Honest Mamas. We chat a bit about each topic and how we do life each month. One of the fun things is we are all at different stages in motherhood. Some of us have one, others have 3. Some are stay at home mamas, some are work from home, others are working mamas, and some of us are single mamas and its all just stinking beautiful. I find inspiration from these ladies.

What do family traditions mean to you? Why are they important to you?

Family traditions are very near to my heart. They are also hard. My mom (who passed 4.5 years ago from cancer) loved the holidays and was very adamant about creating, and maintaining traditions. From family board game nights, to thanksgiving morning traditions to weekly tradtiions . It was one of my favorite things, especially now looking at back the holidays I have such fond memories of how excited it would make my mom and seeing how much effort she put into it to bring us all together. Acts of service was how she loved us and she was amazing at it. Those memories are what I have left of her. I recently wrote about dealing with loss during the holidays HERE.

I personally am one of those that has a really hard time if traditions are not able to be withheld because I hold memories of loved ones so close to my heart.

What are some of your holiday family tradition?

I have to pause and focus on thanksgiving because not only is it the next holiday but it was my mamas favorite. Therefore it is the hardest holiday without her. Thanksgiving morning started with sleeping in, but not to long as we didn’t wanna miss watching the Macys Day Parade. Not that it was something glorious to watch, it was just what we did. And well growing up the TV was never on for hours at a time. So that may have been apart of the appeal as well 😉 Still to this day if I don’t get to start my morning with watching the Macys Day Parade it hurts. For me its apart of holding onto her legacy.

While the Macys day parade is going on in the background mom would be food prepping. I would always volunteer to help cause well I loved cooking, and well taste testing 😉

She always had a list of everything that needed to be done and in what order. Dad was God knows where off doing his own thing. haha. Oh dad. We would eventually pack up the car and head over to my grandmas big red house on the hill. Where we would meet up with my grandparents, cousins and aunt + uncle. Thanksgiving was small but it was perfect. We would run all around grandparents house playing inside and out. Trying to sneak food before it was time. Okay lets be honest, grandma was offering food to us 😉

We always tried to play board games beforehand. Us kids were always coming up with ways to sell our toys to each other. haha. After we ate we would always watch a movie as we were in turkey coma. (Its a real thing people) Eventually we would bundle up and head home. Half the time we would devour turkey leftovers that night. haha.

Family traditions don’t just have to be holiday based…what are your daily/weekly family traditions?

Oh I love this. I try so hard to take my son to some of his favorite places at least 1-3 times a week. In the summer its his favorite animal farm. We would go about 3-4 times a week. Now that its getting colder we love going to Union Station and running around and checking out the trains. He is obsessed. I usually try and take him on a “date” at least twice a month. And we always go out to lunch together at least once a week at my favorite juice cafe in Kansas City. He will drink his own drink no problem.

Christmas pictures have been something we’ve done. This year was a little different with it just being the two of us but I thought you know what? I still wanna do them and I am SO GLAD we did. Images in this post are from that session with the amazing Leigh Miller Photography.

Share your tips for creating strong family traditions. (Examples: Communication, Scheduled family time, etc)

Being a single mama its easier I suppose because its just him and I that are going out and doing things. He’s still to young to say no 😉 haha!! For myself though I try and be diligent about scheduling things. I honestly am much more ‘carefree’ about scheduling this kind of thing and just kinda follow my gut as to what we both need. Like today I had some work to do after I finished in record time I decided we needed to get out of the house. So we spent an hour at one of his favorite places and it was pure joy for both of us.

Tell us something positive you have seen come out of making an effort to have family traditions/family time?

Creating memories is one of the most beautiful things you can do and at the end of the day when I am gone memories of the two of us will be all He has. I just want Him to remember me as someone loved him well, and gave him room to love and be himself. As he grows up I want to expose him to a lot so that He can make his own choices as to what He loves. So for now we are exploring the city one park and museum at a time.

The beauty in taking time to make new traditions is re-discovering how amazing your town is. Its taking time to breathe, and finding joy in the small things.