Traditions

I love Christmas and another one has just gone, Yay!!!
We come from all over the Nation and the world to be together for a couple of days.
To catch up with those we left, to get away from in the first place.
We spend money like we can pick it from a tree out in the backyard, on people we probably won't speak to for the rest of the year, and they get the best presents cos they will be the one's that tell everyone if it's shit.

Why the hell do we repeat this process year after year...
Tradition...
You do know that Tradition is just a word, right?
The meaning of Tradition  "the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation".

I was separated from my family due to a bad experience, therefore separated from all of the Traditions that came with that family.
When it came to those times of the year that were connected with a "tradition" I had huge anxiety.
What the hell do I do at Christmas and Easter and on Birthdays.

I was in my 40's and the Traditions were set in stone. I had three young children and I had to come up with answers, for their sakes more than my own.

The first Christmas was difficult, I was racing about the kitchen cooking all of the traditional food, trying to get everything on the table for, around, lunchtime, which traditionally was around 2pm.
I was so overwhelmed I ended up outside in the backyard, sitting on my swing chair, sobbing like a small child whose toy had just broken.
My 3 very young children came to me, and not knowing what to say, just sat on the swing-chair with me, and hugged me.
The weight of the four of us, combined with the age of the swing-chair, resulted in all of us piled on top of each other at one end as the bolts finally gave way. There we sat on 'the chair' as it had become, just laughing at the shocked expressions on each of our faces.

Traditions changed in our home, from that day on we created our own traditions, and to this day they are still in place.

My eldest daughter is about to give birth to my first grandchild. Just the other day she told me she was going to do this and that, the way we did them and you know what, I realised we really did start our own traditions, and they are so memorable for my children they want to keep them going.

Traditions are what you make them and they are even more special when you make your own.