It's Tradition!

As we leave for church or for some sort of family activity, many a time you will hear my husband or myself say, "You are a Rivest...you know what THAT means..." and a chorus of "yes, mom....we know" follows. As a mom, something about that makes me smile...I must be doing something right, I want my children to have a secure sense of knowing who they are and where they belong. I believe that this fulfills a deep need that everyone has deep in their soul. The sense of belonging by creating a strong family unit with a clear sense of right and wrong and guiding my children to discover who they are in Christ lays heavily on me as mother and nurturer of my family. I believe that a child flourishes when they are in an environment that they know what their role is, what purpose they have and what qualities they bring to the table. As their mother my job is to cultivate an environment that gives my children the resources to be strong and confident young people. As moms we have a wonderful opportunity to teach our children daily, and I believe that one of the best ways to give our children a sense of belonging is to give them family traditions.

I was blessed to have a very privileged childhood, we did not always have an abundance of money, although we were always taken care of and never needed to worry about were our next meal was coming from, but I did know who I was...I was a Depatie...and I knew what that meant. I knew that when I went to church there were unspoken rules...we knew what was expected of us, we knew that you never asked to wear pants on a Sunday, and if we ever talked at church or sat with people that did..there would be a firm talking to after service. We also knew that we would be the last to leave the building, helping dad load the trailer of sound equipment, or tiding up Sunday School classrooms with my mom.

At home, birthdays were special, with our favorite meals being prepared and birthday parties galore.

On Christmas we always opened one present on Christmas Eve while we were young, after we celebrated at church usually with a candlelight service. Meat pie and an assortment of Christmas dishes were served and my moms shortbread cookies and fudge for dessert. My aunt always made a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas Day, and dinner was an assortment of traditional fare. Christmas Eve we put cookies and a can of coke out for Santa....but most of all
we knew who we were and where we belonged.

As my children are getting older I have been amazed how important our family traditions have become. Recently we were discussing what we wanted to do on our family vacation, and it was interesting the things the kids remembered doing, and how they wanted to do them again. I am reminded how when our children were very young they would ask for the same books to be read over and over again. Children like to know what is going to happen next, and what to look forward too. As moms we have the wonderful responsibility to provide traditions for our family, some might be from when you were young yourself and others might be new to you, some might not work out...and others might seem silly at first but it is well worth the effort.

I started this blog out of my guilt for not scrap booking. I have all of the paper, the stickers (I do have a weakness for great stickers, probably because I had a sticker trading collection when I was young) and fancy scissors and albums that any women could want. I do believe the creators of the scrap booking craze were geniuses..in actuality they were moms. These women knew that as moms what we treasure most is our family and all of the memories that we work so hard to create. What better way to preserve them than to tell our family story in our photo albums. But that takes time...and as a mom, that is a precious commodity. So as much as I love to scrapbook, I decided that I would blog a little about our family, and preserve our family traditions that way...for now. One day, when my children are all grown and I have some free time, I will scrapbook and enjoy our memories all over again. So what I really wanted to do by scrap booking, or by blogging is to chronicle our family memories and traditions.
I will be starting a little series that tells of our family traditions, some you may think funny or they might not work for you...but that's okay, because they work for us, if you ask any of my kids if they know what it means to be a Rivest....you will see a glimmer in their eye, and a smile
come to their face.....and that makes it worth it all.