Traditions

Now that I've ranted myself back into a decent mood, I decided that a nicer post was in order.

I mentioned in my last post that Fridays are pizza (and beer) night in our house. They are. Before we had kids, Sunday nights were reserved for pizza (more often than not the frozen variety), a beer, and a movie. It was our way to have a quiet evening before the new work week started. I can't remember why, but this fall we agreed to move pizza night to Friday. I think it had to do with the fact that it kept seeming to get moved to Friday anyway because by then I wasn't feeling much like cooking a meal (and a beer sounded really refreshing)!

Anyway, I mentioned the Friday pizza night to a friend yesterday and that got me going on how Friday nights are pizza night and that Sunday nights, in our family, are pancake nights. Steve always dreamed about having weekend morning pancakes which one of us would cook while the other one lovingly played with the kid(s). Well of course that doesn't work out so nicely in our family because Saturday mornings (at least from September to May) we are rushing off to Cricket school (Kailin's Chinese culture and language class) and we attend 8am church on Sundays - not much time there for pancake making even if we do get up at the crack of dawn. So instead we've made Sunday nights pancake night. We're usually home (which is why Saturday got ruled out) and it's a nice family meal. We vary the type of pancakes we have - some weeks it's apple cinnamon, sometimes peach. Sometimes it's double chocolate chip or pumpkin or spice or banana walnut. They're all fun - and easy - and it keeps it interesting! Kailin loves to help me make them and I love to have her help (usually) sharing in my passion for cooking. Talking about that reminded me (as did a survey that a friend filled out for me earlier this week) that the long cold winter made me forget that we also have a Saturday morning ritual during the farmer's market season. We pack up and head off to the local farmer's market. We get our fresh veggies for the week (or toward the end of the season, buy peppers or beets by the bag full so I can freeze them for the long winter - that was my best "find" last year and I'm so glad I did it!) and we each get a "treat" from the bakery/deli. I like that Kailin can see her food "whole" and know where it comes from before it hits her plate and I love knowing that we're supporting local farmers and "eating local." I loved those Saturday mornings last year - even when we had to rush off to Cricket afterwards. I can't wait for Colby to join in our fun family traditions, and I was so happy to discover that we have some. Family is the most important thing in my life and it makes me smile to know that my kids will be able to look back someday and remember all the little things that made up their everyday life.