On traditions.

by

When J & I first married, I became obsessed with the idea of making “traditions.” I have no idea if deliberately making up traditions makes them valid but nonetheless, that’s what I felt and did.

Traditions I Can Immediately Call To Mind:

On December 27th, my family always travels to San Francisco for the day, just to spend time together and also to spend any Christmas money we might have acquired. I definitely have made sure we always do this.

From the first night of December until Christmas Day, J & I watch a holiday movie every night regardless of what else we have planned. I definitely have made sure we always do this.

Every Sunday morning before church, we always always always get coffee together, either from Starbucks or Empresso. I definitely have made sure we always do this.

And so on.

Nothing serious, nothing life-changing…but then we had a baby.

And oh. My. GOD.

I became a crazed woman. Not only did I want to make new traditions involving A while also incorporating him into our already-existent ones, but I also wanted to document everything.

Everything.

I take pictures like it’s going out of style. I have four different journals that do various jobs of recording each and every day’s occurrences, big & small. I browse Pinterest to find ideas of new traditions I can implement in our family.

I’m a woman possessed.

For awhile, I was honestly pretty self-conscious about it. I felt like I was obsessing over things that, in the long run, aren’t important. After all, we’re not expected as a society to take pleasure in the day-to-day routine of our lives, traditions included. Every day is just…a day.

But in the last few weeks, I have become more and more comfortable with the idea of celebrating each day like it’s a holiday, and then documenting what made that day special. I want to remember every last thing that happens while A is still so young and sweet. I want to make memories with him that he can recall when he gets older, and then look forward to participating in when the time is appropriate.

I want to make a tradition of reading a story to him every night before bed, and taking pictures of it while it’s happening.

I want to make it a tradition to walk down Meadow Lane to look at the lights during the holiday season, and videotape us doing it.

I want to make it a tradition to not just celebrate his birthday but his birth week, and then write about every one in my journal.

Time and space are so extra special now that A’s around.

I don’t want to miss a single moment.