Interview with a Green: Family Traditions

Seeing at is the season where it seems the most family traditions exist, we thought it suiting to share some of our favorite family traditions growing up.  Reminiscing on these little activities that made the holidays and family time just a little more special gets us excited to start our own traditions, as well as adopt some from our families.

Kelli:

•  While living in Albuquerque, every Christmas eve we would venture to the land of luminarias.  For those of you who do not know what luminarias are, they are paper bags with candles in them which, according to folklore, lights a path for the Christ Child to find your home.  Paper bags with candles in them may not sound all that alluring, but I promise it is breathtaking to see house after house with their pathways, lawns and roofs decorated.  Attending this each year was something I looked forward to and although we moved from Albuquerque, my family kept up the tradition of luminarias by putting them on our pathway every Christmas eve.  Love it.

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Google Images

• Many families will have ham or goose or what not on Christmas Eve, but in our family, we have king crab.  When we moved to California, this tradition started, and has kept going to this day.  Christmas Eve is a time when anyone is welcome to the Baldwin's to enjoy some delicious crab, dipped in melted buttery goodness.  I fear though, that this one will not spill into our household until we live in a place that has fresh crab...
• Easter was a time when we would get to try a meat creation from my dad.  It would usually always revolve around lamb or pork, but was always something different each year.  This may not seem like much a tradition, but I can honestly say that I looked forward to seeing/tasting what my dad tried out each year.
• Mariah Carey, the Carpenter's and hot chocolate let us know that we were allowed to come out of our bed (us kids usually piled into one until we were "allowed" to get up) on Christmas morning.  When we heard those albums playing and the clinking of mugs, Christmas day had begun!
• We always felt special on our birthdays from the moment we woke up.  There usually was crepe paper we had to break through to get out of our rooms or decorations covering our bathroom mirror.  We would get to open a few presents before school and then got to choose what we wanted for dinner as well as our cake.  The cake part was always tricky because all four children's birthdays are within the first 2 weeks of May so we never wanted to have cake repeats.  Because of this, however, many people think I am a little over the top with birthdays, but I LOVED it.
• A little nerd alert on my part: I LOVE puzzles.  For Christmas, my aunt or someone would usually always get me a puzzle and we would save it for New Year's Eve.  Yes, putting a puzzle together with my family was how I often brought in the New Year.  However, what better way to welcome a New Year in than with family, friends and a little brain challenge?!?

Dallin:

• The 4th of July. While most families would BBQ hamburgers or hot dogs, and light off fireworks, we would do a little something extra. We would all load up in the 'burban and head off to Food 4 Less to pick out our favorite sugar cereal. We never had it growing up, so it was a true treat to walk the "path less traveled" food isle. I remember always getting coco crispys. It had a monkey on the front of the box swinging from the trees.
• Christmas. The only set tradition that I can recall for Christmas was watching the Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve. It was always the verision with George C. Scott playing Scrooge. There was never another version that could hold a flame to this one. As a youngster it scared me a little bit to watch because it was so dark and serious including: The Ghost of Christmas Future with his long, gnarled fingers that he would point with, the children under the Ghost of Christmas Presents robe, Ignorance and Want and how they would make me think about what I would do if I opened my closet door one night to see them sitting in there (the music during both of these parts contributed greatly as well!) I can't remember what the books were called, but we had some Christmas books that would come out once a year. There would be people to search for and different items to find. It was not an Eye Spy or a Where's Waldo?, but kind of the same thing.

•   Every fall it was a tradition to go to See and buy Apples. The only apple rival that I have tasted was on our New York trip this past fall; That was even a close call. The See Canyon apple cider is amazing as well. We were told to sip it not gulp it. We savored the flavor that way. On the way home we would eat the apples and throw the cores at the road signs as we passed them. Good times.

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We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and hope it will be spent with loved ones make memories!  Love you all.