It's Never Too Late to Embrace a Tradition

Three years ago, we started a tradition that the kids now look forward to all year long.  I would never had imagined that a spontaneous change in meal-planning would produce this sort of excitement and anticipation.  On New Years Eve, normal people are probably cleaning, planning and shopping for parties.  Or heading out to bars wearing a lot of sequins and makeup.  Nope, not us.


New Years Eve is the craziest day of the year in our house.  It is a complete, utter,  backwards day that starts the day off with turning around the pajamas.  This one hurt to watch; it just looked really uncomfortable. 

The kids woke up, took showers and I prepared breakfast, err...dinner.    Ice cream sandwiches started the meal and some of us had grilled cheese and some had leftover Indian food.  I begrudgingly ate and definitely felt it mid-morning (I have to wait a while to eat) but I knew that I needed to participate.  The Pickies were absolutely pleased to have Mommy at the kitchen table in the morning.

We then cuddled up and watched "Mr. Popper's Penguin"...which is a terrific movie if you haven't seen it.  I really fought every urge to do laundry, meal-plan, knit or do anything during the movie.  I'm glad I just chilled; the kids were so pleased.  We had our dear friends stop in, had our usual lunch and naptime, but then at dinner...you guessed it:  Blueberry pancakes, roasted hash brown potatoes, tempeh bacon and a curried scrambled tofu.  OK, maybe you wouldn't have guessed the bacon and tofu part, but hey,we like it.  :)

We finished the evening off with snuggling up on the couch with the dogs and watching the surprisingly-hilarious "Winnie the Pooh" movie...another good one.  The kids went to bed with full bellies and a happy heart.  It turned out to be a terrific day and it only required us to stretch our imagination a bit more and meal-plan a little different.  It was completely worth the queasiness I felt mid-morning after eating an ice cream sandwich and grilled cheese sandwich at 7:30am.  ;)

Another crazy thing hubs and I did yesterday is that we unplugged from our phones and computers while the kids were awake.  This, in itself, caused me quite a bit of anxiety but then he said to me, "We aren't Amish; it's OK to check your email occasionally."  I don't want my children to grow up and reflect on childhood with a mother who was constantly glued to an iPhone, like much of my fellow generation.  And what did I get to do yesterday?  I colored.  I built train tracks.  I pretended to be a dog.  I watched movies.  It was a great day.

It is never too late to start a tradition.  It may surprise you how a crazy idea can turn into something so sentimental and loved.  

Happy New Year to you and yours.