Cultivating Traditions
When I became a mother, one of the first things I thought about were what traditions am I gonna cultivate within my own family. What makes a tradition? Well, good ole Wikipedia has the following which is pretty apt: “The concept includes a number of interrelated ideas; the unifying one is that tradition refers to beliefs, objects or customs performed or believed in the past, originating in it, transmitted through time by being taught by one generation to the next, and are performed or believed in the present.”
I've always found traditions to be a source of comfort and connection. Traditions don't have to be fancy either. Sometimes, the simpler the better. I remember one Christmas tradition that I don't think my Dad meant to be a formal "tradition" but it’s still one of the things I remember most about that holiday and a special memory. Every Christmas, he would bring home a giant Hershey Kiss. Like massive. I think he got it from Sam's Club. Every Christmas we would each have a piece of it. Not only was the fact that it was huge make it memorable, but that we had to cut it with a proper knife. So, just watching him do that is a visual that's in my mind. Even though it was just a piece of chocolate, it felt so special to me. That each one of us got a piece felt like it connected us. I can never not look at a Hershey kiss without thinking of that.
Now, I haven't come up with a fun food one yet for Christmas for our family aside from the typical baking of the Christmas cookies so I'm still working on a special one for that holiday. But, one tradition that my mother-in-law started for my husband, we've continued. You probably wondered why all these pictures of these miniature figurines? Well, this is one of our special traditions we passed on to Veena.
My mother-in-law used to travel a lot for work when my husband was younger. Every time she would come home from a trip, she would bring James a little silver or pewter figurine. When they were first unearthed on a trip we made to Longboat Key (where my in-laws live), seeing James' face as he was looking through them was such a sight. He's typically not a very sentimental person, but when looking at those, I saw how much they had meant to him and how nostalgic those memories were for him. Most of these pictured are from his original collection that are now placed on a shelf in Veena's bedroom. However, when my mother-in-law gave me the collection to give to Veena (which by the way I just swooned at especially, all the animals), I knew I needed to carry it on. So, since Veena's birth, we've added a little figurine every birthday.
The first one was actually a baby shower gift from my sister and brother-in-law. This silver elephant, Veena was fascinated with as a baby. It's actually a music box too. It has a dial that you turn at the bottom so she loved holding it while the music played.
The second one is a little silver Ganesha (a Hindu deity who I love —I love collecting Ganesha's in general) that she got for her first birthday.
For her second birthday, she loved turtles so much so we got her this silver turtle. I gotta say this is one of my favorites because I always think about the way she pronounced turtle at age 2. It was the cutest! Tut-tle.
The most recent one is not silver, it’s glass. But, we loved this pink pig because Veena's favorite series of books thus far are the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems. Since we already had an elephant, we thought a pig would be the perfect addition.
My hope is that every birthday she can look forward to what figurine is to come. She already did this birthday. Plus, down the road this is a collection she can possibly pass on to her kids if she chooses to have them.
What are some special traditions you have in your family? Please share and comment below. Would love more ideas to incorporate into ours. Also, please feel free to take this one and embrace it in your family if you like it.
