Establishing Traditions

My mother was amazing at creating traditions in our family. We had traditions for every holiday and birthdays. Some of them came naturally from having a large extended family near where we lived, but lots of our celebrating was because Mom was such a planner and organizer. I, unfortunately, did not get that gene. I'm much more the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of planner. But it is important to me that the boys remember celebrating holidays and have some traditions to claim.

Valentine's Day has always been something I make special for the boys. I did something for them even before their dad left, but after that, I felt like we all really needed to redeem the day. I need to celebrate the love God had put in my life in them. They need reminders that when you love someone, you show it. How I wish they could see a daddy romancing a mommy on this day, but for now that's not to be. So we have our own traditions.

First of all, no matter the day, we take it off. No school. That's one of the cool things about homeschooling, we can make any day we like a holiday. We get up and there is a card and some candy waiting for the boys. Before they can eat the candy, I fix chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream. In the past I have made pancake hearts, but today I couldn't figure out how I had done it, so I made Mickey ones with a pancake mold I have. Doesn't really matter, they eat them so quick no one's impressed with the shape. Then during the day we do something fun together. Today we had passes for a free movie, so we went to see Narnia again.

It caught me off gaurd this morning as I was waking up late how excited they were about today. I guess it surprised me because this year I didn't get away to get cards and candy and treats without them. In fact, we did it last night at the last minute! But they were excited anyway. It dawned on me today, that I was setting a precedent for what they will do for their families. Hopefully they will remember as men to make Valentine's Day special because Mom made it special for them. Maybe it will score me some points with my daughters-in-law.