Journal Jar: The Last of the Traditions
There are a few more traditions not covered before, so I'll finish up with our family traditions for the following holidays and/or events:
Graduations; 4th of July; Halloween; Thanksgiving
For graduations, we don't have any. There, that was simple.
4th of July: For the past few years we've been going to dd Heffalump's home in a nearby beach town where they have a quaint little 4th of July parade . It's a small town, so it's a small-town parade, and it goes right by Heffalump's house. We take our chairs out and set them up on the sidewalk about an hour or so before the parade starts. It starts out with the US Coast Guard helicopter flying low over the parade route to be sure all is clear, then the parade begins. It's fire trucks, Coast Guard vehicles, National Guard trucks and other stuff, big pickups, vintage cars, kids on bikes and wagons, etc. Fun. Afterwards, we usually barbecue hamburgers & hot dogs and follow up with a walk on a beach.
Halloween: Since about 1995 or so we've had the annual Pumpkin Carving party, hosted by 2 dd. Starts out with a potluck dinner, then everyone carves their pumpkin. Add candles, turn out all the lights, and two dsil's (son's in law) proceed to take photos of said pumpkins. Sometimes we even get pictures of all attending family members. The kids sometimes dress up in their Halloween costumes, and sometimes the adults do, too. This year Heffalump's kids were: Waldo (from "Where's Waldo"), Mario & Luigi, Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Incredible, a tiger, and Baby B was a sweet tomato.
Thanksgiving: We alternate the big family dinner every other year, giving the married kids the opportunity to share Thanksgiving with their in-laws, or in the case of in-laws who live a long ways away, the opportunity to have a quiet Thanksgiving on their own. This is the year of the big family dinner, so we'll have 20-some odd people here. I need to get busy and figure out what I want people to bring--we don't make me cook it all by myself, thankfully.
In a few days or so I'll be drawing another question out of the Journal Jar and answering it here. Stay tuned!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
Accomplished!
It's my own fault, really. I knew I had signed up to have the missionaries from our church over for dinner on an upcoming Wednesday. The trouble was, I didn't have my calendar with me at the time, so I didn't make note of the date. Or maybe I did on another piece of paper, but forgot where I put that piece of paper. At any rate, when this past Sunday came along, I wasn't sure if it was THIS coming Wednesday, or the following Wednesday, that I had signed up to have them come. "Oh well," thought I confidently, "When they pass the calendar around again today, I'll just look and see which day it is."
Hmmm, well the lady who is in charge of circulating the dinner calendar wasn't at church on Sunday. "Oh well," thought I confidently, "They always call the night before to confirm, and to let us know what time to pick them up." When Tuesday came and went, and Wednesday morning too (they sometimes call Wednesday mornings) with no phone calls, I figured it must have been NEXT Wednesday that I signed up to have them. Except I wondered why I would agree to have them on the same day that I had agreed to teach a class at my local genealogy society. I went about my day, dropping in at the genealogy society and sitting in on the beginning genealogy class (I'm teaching that on December 4th), etc. At 4:15 in the afternoon, the phone rang, and it was Elder W. "I'm sorry I didn't call sooner, but we have you on our calendar for dinner tonight, is that still okay?" Ummmmm, well, I had taken 3 chicken breasts out of the freezer to make for dh & ds & I, which I couldn't stretch easily without a whole different direction. After agreeing to pick them up a little later than we usually do, I set about to make dinner.
First, I popped the chicken into a pot of water to cook, checked the cupboard for some Stovetop stuffing mix, located a brownie mix in the cupboard (but decided against them), located a box of butterscotch instant pudding in the cupboard (our last box of pudding mix--add that to my grocery list), and remembered I had a bag of salad greens in the fridge, and a tub of frozen cookie dough we had bought from our grandson's last spring for their school's fundraiser. I put the cookie dough on the stove, made up some muffin dough and popped them into the oven. It didn't take too long to cook the chicken, and I even found the recipe I hadn't made in a long while (my kids didn't like stuffing so this was not on their list of favorites), whipped that up and had it in the oven by 5:15 when dh left to pick up these young men.
To make a long story short, dinner was ready when he returned with them about half an hour later. I was feeling so accomplished, especially since my house was clean so I didn't have to do that in addition to making dinner.
The next day I related this story to my #2dd and sis-in-law as we were scrapbooking (dd had her own dinner dilemna the day before too--she invited the neighbor boy to eat with them and ended up with the parents, too). Still feeling accomplished, she sort of took the wind out of my sails when she said, "I'd have gone to Winco and bought pizza."
The thought never crossed my mind--and we have a Winco within walking distance. Still, without leaving the house, I prepared a fitting dinner for two hungry young men as well as ourselves, with ingredients I had on hand, and in a short amount of time, too. Yay for me!
Hmmm, well the lady who is in charge of circulating the dinner calendar wasn't at church on Sunday. "Oh well," thought I confidently, "They always call the night before to confirm, and to let us know what time to pick them up." When Tuesday came and went, and Wednesday morning too (they sometimes call Wednesday mornings) with no phone calls, I figured it must have been NEXT Wednesday that I signed up to have them. Except I wondered why I would agree to have them on the same day that I had agreed to teach a class at my local genealogy society. I went about my day, dropping in at the genealogy society and sitting in on the beginning genealogy class (I'm teaching that on December 4th), etc. At 4:15 in the afternoon, the phone rang, and it was Elder W. "I'm sorry I didn't call sooner, but we have you on our calendar for dinner tonight, is that still okay?" Ummmmm, well, I had taken 3 chicken breasts out of the freezer to make for dh & ds & I, which I couldn't stretch easily without a whole different direction. After agreeing to pick them up a little later than we usually do, I set about to make dinner.
First, I popped the chicken into a pot of water to cook, checked the cupboard for some Stovetop stuffing mix, located a brownie mix in the cupboard (but decided against them), located a box of butterscotch instant pudding in the cupboard (our last box of pudding mix--add that to my grocery list), and remembered I had a bag of salad greens in the fridge, and a tub of frozen cookie dough we had bought from our grandson's last spring for their school's fundraiser. I put the cookie dough on the stove, made up some muffin dough and popped them into the oven. It didn't take too long to cook the chicken, and I even found the recipe I hadn't made in a long while (my kids didn't like stuffing so this was not on their list of favorites), whipped that up and had it in the oven by 5:15 when dh left to pick up these young men.
To make a long story short, dinner was ready when he returned with them about half an hour later. I was feeling so accomplished, especially since my house was clean so I didn't have to do that in addition to making dinner.
The next day I related this story to my #2dd and sis-in-law as we were scrapbooking (dd had her own dinner dilemna the day before too--she invited the neighbor boy to eat with them and ended up with the parents, too). Still feeling accomplished, she sort of took the wind out of my sails when she said, "I'd have gone to Winco and bought pizza."
The thought never crossed my mind--and we have a Winco within walking distance. Still, without leaving the house, I prepared a fitting dinner for two hungry young men as well as ourselves, with ingredients I had on hand, and in a short amount of time, too. Yay for me!
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Journal Jar: Next Tradition
The next tradition I'll write about is birthday traditions. Now, what's to this tradition? Presents? Cards? Cake? Most of us can expect some kind of acknowledgement on our birthday, either a gift, a card, or a "Happy Birthday" wish from friends or family. The one tradition I can remember from childhood, besides the above and which I have attempted to carry out with my own children, is that the birthday child gets to pick what's for dinner on his/her day. My favorite food growing up was fried chicken, so I'm sure I asked for that a lot. When someone asks me that question now, that's usually what I say. I remember when we first moved west, from La Grande OR to the Portland area, we were living with my grandparents. I was 7 years old when we first moved, but turned 8 about the time we moved in with my grandparents for a brief spell. My parents had separated, we were pretty poor I imagine. My mother wasn't working, so I expect we were being supported by aunts and uncles for that time in our life. I can remember Mom asking my brother what he wanted for his birthday dinner--it would have been his 7th birthday if I'm remembering the time right. He answered "Hot dogs," and I can remember my mother appearing to be very relieved, probably that it wasn't something like steak.
I don't remember many of the dishes my kids asked for, for their birthday supper. I remember my son asking for KMart sandwiches one year. I think he was probably about 4. KMart used to sell deli sandwiches, some kind of meat and cheese on a hamburger bun. For some reason, my son thought this was the best food in the world. And the twins would ask for something different, so I'd end up making two main dishes. The last couple of years it was steak for one, and Chicken Alfredo for the other.
So, what would you ask for if you had your choice, for your birthday dinner?
I don't remember many of the dishes my kids asked for, for their birthday supper. I remember my son asking for KMart sandwiches one year. I think he was probably about 4. KMart used to sell deli sandwiches, some kind of meat and cheese on a hamburger bun. For some reason, my son thought this was the best food in the world. And the twins would ask for something different, so I'd end up making two main dishes. The last couple of years it was steak for one, and Chicken Alfredo for the other.
So, what would you ask for if you had your choice, for your birthday dinner?
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