Building Traditions

I look forward to November and December.  

When the leaves start to change color, and the weather gets colder,

 I start to feel the excitement of the season.

We hit November hard with all of our Birthdays and Thanksgiving,

and then it's on to more celebrating.

Trav and I have always tried to make our Anniversary something special.

We take turns each year planning it, but we usually go stay somewhere

and have time together Christmas shopping, eating out and having fun.

There are the family parties, Basketball tournaments and time off school.

I love knowing I'll have Trav and the kids home for 2 weeks straight,

  just relaxing and spending time together. 

I love the traditions we have and look forward to them.

A couple of years ago, Trav and I took the kids and my Dad to see

A Christmas Carol

at Hale Center Theater.

The kids enjoyed it and it was nice to do something we never do.

Last year, Garrett was in a theater class at the Jr. High.

He had to attend a play of some kind during the term and it was worth a large part of his grade.

I looked in to getting tickets for Christmas Carol again,

but they were all sold out.

I found a guitar concert in Salt Lake at a Piano store that he also had to attend,

and it happened to be fairly close to the Desert Star Playhouse.

Trav and I had gone there years ago, and I remembered it being really funny.

I thought Garrett might enjoy that better anyway.....

seeing as he wasn't too excited to have to attend a play.

We LOVED it!

Garrett was laughing out loud and singing along.

We ate dinner while we watched the play and just had a great time.

Trav and I mentioned how we ought to make that a tradition every year now

at Christmas Time to take the kids.

So, fast forward to this year.

We were so busy everything just snuck up on me.

The last week of school, before the Christmas break,

Garrett came home and announced he needed to go to a play again for another class.

I forgot about it, until their last day of school before Christmas.

Trav took the day off and we got the kids to school and came back and were just

sitting on our bed looking on our computers.

The idea came to me to hurry and look for tickets to Desert Star for that day.

There just happened to be 7 tickets left!

Trav and I talked it over and decided it would be so fun to surprise the kids

and check them out of school a couple of hours early to go to the play

and start off our Christmas break that way!

I called my Dad to see if he could watch Austy, 

purchased the tickets and hurried to get ready.

The kids were excited and surprised that we checked them out.

When we told them we were going to the play, Garrett started telling Ty and Sis how awesome it is there and how it's not even like you're watching a play because they make it so fun.

I was glad they were looking forward to it.

We got there, just a few minutes before it started.

The kids were hungry, so we ordered a pizza.

The play they did this year was,

"How the Grouch Stole Christmas!"

It was really cute.

At the end of every performance, they take a minute to get to know the crowd.

They sing Happy Birthday to anyone in the audience with a Birthday,

and make a big deal out of Anniversaries for couples.

When I ordered the tickets, I told them Garrett's 15th Birthday was coming up.

They mentioned a few people and then asked if there was a Garrett Burke in the crowd.

Garrett smiled and raised his hand a little timidly!

They asked if he had his drivers permit yet, and then sang Happy Birthday!

 

 We had such a great time.

This is definitely our new family Tradition and I hope it is one the kids will

continue to look forward to each year at Christmas time.

I imagine us taking our kids and grandkids down the road too!

I love traditions with family.

They build unity and lasting memories.

Those are the moments remembered when kids are grown up and gone,

I pray my kids have many of those!