Tradition

Family / Lifestyle / Tradition — 4 Comments
12
Jan 12

New Year’s Resolution: Did You Make One?

Happy 2012!

With the flip of the calendar to a brand new year, the words NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION are seen and heard everywhere.

Whether you’re listening to the radio, watching television, chatting on Facebook, tweeting, or standing by the proverbial water cooler at work, these words are inescapable at this time of year. They follow you everywhere, like that annoying piece of bubble gum stuck to the sole of your shoe.

If bubble gum looked like this after you step on it, it might not be so annnoying.

I don’t know about you, but the New Year’s resolutions that I make generally have failure written all over them. And so, on December 31st, as I celebrated with family and joined in on the countdown to the New Year, I resolved to not make a New Year’s resolution.

I decided to go against the grain and not make a New Year's resolution for 2012.

I was happy with my decision and fully prepared to see it through until my
nine-year old daughter Ava came home from school yesterday. Her homework assignment was to come up with a New Year’s resolution for herself and list the ways in which she could help herself achieve this resolution.

True to her nature, Ava’s mind was racing with questions:

What’s a New Year’s resolution?
What kinds of New Year’s resolutions do people make?
What should she do to better herself in 2012?
What steps could she take to help herself achieve her resolution?
What is my New Year’s resolution?

Oh boy. This last question caught me off guard. How do you tell your nine-year old daughter that you decided against making a resolution? Especially when you’ve just finished explaining that a New Year’s resolution involves making a promise with yourself to make a lifestyle change that will ultimately lead you on a path to becoming a better person?

We make New Year's resolutions to help ourselves evolve into better human beings.

What to do? Do I make something up? Do I tell her the truth? Or do I go back on my decision and make a resolution? Maybe there’s a way around this… If my New Year’s resolution for 2012 is to not make a resolution of any kind, isn’t that a resolution in and of itself? In other words, if I chose to not partake in this yearly ritual that is practised the world over, does that in effect make me an active participant?

What to do?

Yes! This answer might work—except for one… big… glitch. How does one better himself/herself by not making a New Year’s resolution?

Ding-dang! I better come up with something quick!… What’s your New Year’s resolution?

Thanks for stopping by,
Anita

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Tradition — 1 Comment
20
Dec 10

The Happy Little Elf

Hello,

It’s that time of year again. With what feels like the blink of an eye, we’re back to celebrating the holiday season. It seems that with each passing year, as the kids get older, this special time of year seems to role around faster and faster.

I don’t know about you, but I dread the day when the kiddies no longer scamper down the stairs on Christmas morning and squeal with delight at the sight of presents under the tree. I never want the magic to end!

Somewhere around mid-December of last year, my family was ready for Christmas, but it wasn’t quite ready for us. The tree has been trimmed, the stockings were hung, the outdoor lights were lit, and the Christmas shows had been viewed. The anticipation of Christmas was beginning to fade. The kids were starting to whine that it was taking forever for Christmas to arrive. We needed to give them a focus. The Advent calendar wasn’t quite doing it for them anymore.

Along came a happy little elf that simply appeared in our mailbox out of thin air! No bigger than a Christmas ornament, and one suspiciously similar to an ornament seen at the Dollar Store, this little elf is happy to hang quietly around the house and watch over the children. Every night, he reports back to Santa. Every morning, he’s hanging out in a different spot—which definitely proves he was busy reporting back to Santa the night before!

Our happy little elf


The kids love this happy little elf. Every morning they scamper down the stairs and search for the elf. When they find him, they squeal with delight as if it were Christmas morning.

The children each take turns talking to the elf, telling him their secret wishes, apologizing if they were naughty, or simply thanking him for choosing our house to watch over.

Last year, this little elf made his first appearance in our home. By Christmas morning, the little elf’s job was clearly done, and so he travelled back to the North Pole for the rest of the year.

Lucky for us, the elf is back again this year. The kids were so excited to find him in the mailbox the other day that they could barely keep their feet on the ground—no joke!

If you’re looking to keep the anticipating of Christmas from fading in your home, maybe your children will be lucky enough to find a happy little elf of their own in your mailbox too.

Thanks for stopping by,

Anita

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Family / Family Road Trip / Tradition — No Comments
12
Oct 10

Shades of Fall

Red, yellow, green, orange. I’m gazing out at every variation and combination of these colours as we slowly wind our way through stretches of the 401. Traffic is getting heavier and heavier. Thanksgiving weekend is drawing to a close.  Cars, vans, trucks, and SUVs are spilling from cottage country roads onto the busiest roadway in North America. Everyone is trying to make their way back home.

As the sun streams in through the car windows, I think of newly created memories that are as fresh as just baked bread. Over the past three days, my two sisters and I reunited with parents, spouses, children, and close friends by our side. All at arm’s reach. All under one roof. The same roof that sheltered us as we grew through our childhood, youth, and early adult years.

We hadn’t all been together like this, under this particular roof, in close to 10 years. Where did the time go?  Don’t get me wrong. We’ve all been together many, many times over the years that make up the past decade, but never under this particular roof. As we stretched our wings and grew our families, our parents made the effort to drive this roadway so we could all be together. But since our father got sick last month (see September’s blog entry), it is our turn to make the drive and reunite under the roof that gave us shelter all those years ago.

I glance up from the computer as I write this entry. As our car meanders through this slow patch of highway traffic, my eye catches a street sign that reads Shelter Valley Road. Huh. Interesting that I chose to use the word shelter and here it is. Every letter spelled out crystal clear before me. On the street sign straight ahead.

Red, yellow, green, orange. Thanksgiving weekend is drawing to a close. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Anita

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