this little person has been talking about what cake she will have for her 4th birthday for approximately 11 months now... and for the most part is has remained the same - a ladybird cake. so that's what it will be, together with a ladybird pinata as well. the pinata has now become a birthday tradition in our family, one which i really love. as the children get older, they'll be more and more help with the making of it too... and speaking of traditions - here's a new one for us taken from one of my favourite crafting books the creative family by amanda blake soule. it's miss m's birthday crown, which hopefully will be worn and enjoyed for many birthdays to come. it's a very easy pattern and is sewn from felt. the idea is to add a small embellishment for each year and that in time as the birthday girl/boy looks/reflects upon the various additions, the memories of that day remain strong and precious. when i spent a year travelling the us - i especially loved the traditions of thanksgiving, halloween and christmas. yes, we do celebrate christmas here! but it was so nice to have a COLD one! and the beautiful family i spent my christmas break with LOVED their traditions too. a few weeks out, the oven would start up, the same cookie cutters would come out, the saved cookie tins too, and the family would get baking. as children, the brothers and sisters would enjoy decorating the spice cookies in various ways, and as i understand, certain decorations and patterns became almost copywrited by each member, repeated with accuracy year after year! these cookies would then get boxed up, placed in tins and mailed to friends and family around the country and world as special gifts from the heart. each year they would make tree decorations, and each year as they dressed the tree, the family would reminisce , telling the funny stories and anecdotes about how such-and-such spilt the glitter all over the dog, or the paint that got spilled on mum's good lounge... these are the traditions i love. the home-made ones. the ones that just get better with time. the ones that make you feel loved, warm and wanted. these are the moments and traditions i'd like to build into my family.
marking certain days as extra special, celebrating our small poeple and big people alike, and the contributions they make to our family and to ourselves is so important. slowly we are building in traditions to our family, and our own special days and i'm hoping that with every year those traditions and activites help to strengthen and build the bonds of our family.
do you have any great family traditions? make a comment and share the love - go on, it's (nearly) christmas!
thanks for stopping by, x me
Great post. In my extended family because we are Dutch we always celebrate St Nicholaas' Day on the 6th Dec. Part of the celebration that we've done since my Mum was small is the unwrapping of the statues. All of the nativity statues are wrapped in newspaper and you have to choose one to unwrap and place in the nativity scene. No one wants the get the sole black sheep because that means you've been the naughtiest that year. I've never gotten it, thank God.
ReplyDeleteWoooooooooo Hooooooooo - Happy B'day Miss Moo!
ReplyDeleteYou look absolutely stunning in your precious pink crown!
We hope you had a magical day!
Love the Corbett Clan!
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