"If we will build righteous traditions in our families, the light of the gospel can grow ever brighter in the lives of our children from generation to generation."
- L. Tom Perry
Burning Bright On the Darkest Night
The first new tradition our family participated in is all about "light growing brighter." It happens every 21st of December, the darkest night of the year, the Winter Solstice. My friend Alicia and her husband Stan invited us to join them in their annual tradition of making candles out of real bee's wax. Stan's father, and grandfather were bee keepers and he and Alicia are the ones today who keep the family
honey making business buzzing. :P Alicia is one of the amazing and talented ladies in our home school co-op group. It's so fun to have her share with us her wealth of knowledge of how the bees make the wax and the process they go through to extract it. I reminded Chandler that his name means, candle maker or light bearer. He rolled his eyes at me, "I know mom. How many times do you have to tell me that?" I smiled and ignored his grumpy attitude, glad he at least made the decision to come along with us that evening. It really was a great Family Night and we look forward to doing it again a second time next year.
Every 23rd of December
The next tradition is every 23rd of December we gather with all of my husband's siblings and parents at his sister's house in Alpine. We feast on delicious food and take turns doing a family talent show or skit on the stage in their basement. Anyone who is out of state watches the show through Skype. It ranges from piano or violin playing, reader's theater, reciting poetry, family trivia, or singing Christmas carols. The main rule is to have a great time. After all the performances we go back upstairs and treat ourselves to my father-in-law's traditional sweet rolls,"Bert's Buns."
Then here's my favorite part; we all get a copy of the famous Rawlin's Photobook. Me and Joseph's seven sisters rotate through designing and coordinating the photographs of everyone in the family from the past year. It's hard to keep track of a growing family of nine children but that's why we use the wonderful tool of the internet. No matter where anyone is living in the world, they access our family photo book for the year and upload pictures on to their assigned pages. It results in a book that includes everyone, captures priceless memories, shares our stories, and inspires greater love and unity. We've stopped doing gift exchanges even with the grandchildren. This is hands down everyone's favorite gift from the oldest in the family to the youngest. After we open the latest Rawlin's Photo Book edition, everyone spends over an hour reading, laughing, reminiscing, and enjoying it together.
Christmas Eve
Our own little family Christmas Eve tradition has gotten more fun since we decided to try my friend Suzanne's idea of a Shepherd's Dinner. We give the kids their own special candle and eat on the floor by the light of our Christmas tree. The food is simple: grapes, pomegranate, fresh vegetables w/ hummus, pieces of cheese, a fresh loaf of uncut bread, and some kind of meat or fish. (stuff a shepherd would eat)
The kids get a little restless after dinner so before we continue with the old-world theme, we watch my favorite Christmas movie, "It's a Wonderful Life." Then we do our reading of Luke 2. (We've given the kids the option to dress up as the characters but every year they would rather use our Bethlehem Nativity pieces and act out the scriptures with them.)
After the Nativity, we unwrap our new Christmas Book, a tradition we started in 2011 or 2012. This year our book was "
The Tale of Three Trees" by, Angela Elwell Hunt.
Then we send the kids off to bed. They like to sleep in the same room together and stay up all night watching more movies.... usually, The Grinch and Elf. It's the only time of year where I'll let them watch as many movies in a row as they want.
Christmas Morning
Before we open any presents, we have a family prayer of gratitude. We read "The Living Christ" and share briefly what we want to give our Savior the new year. For breakfast, we always invite a neighbor who lives alone to share our traditional strawberry, cream cheese, french toast. We hope that by doing this our children will learn to reach out to others on Christmas day, to think outside of themselves and see that the most meaningful thing is not the gifts but being in the presence of people who love you. This year it was my dear friend, Lou.
Well, there you have it. Traditions old and new. They give us purpose, meaning, and direction. And in the words of Tevye, “Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do.”
-Alicia
