Making Our Own Family Traditions

I have always been a fan of family traditions. From spending the night at my Grandma’s house on Christmas Eve watching movies to our annual summer family trips, I look forward to these traditions, big and small, that my family has continued over the years. (Or at least have tried to!) To me, an important part of being a family is creating these lasting traditions to share together. Special outings, particular meals, or activities that you you participate in together, year after year. That you can look forward to, that you can count on. That are special to your family. That, at the core, are all about togetherness.

Sometimes, long-standing traditions change for one reason or another, kids get too old for some childlike activities or people can’t get away for that same trip every year….things happen, traditions change, and that’s okay. It’s okay as long as we are always making room for new traditions. Always making room for togetherness. Always making an effort to create new special things we can do together and carry on for years to come. Because we are ultimately building a family history, together.

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This weekend we went to one of our very favorite places to go this time of year…Kuiper’s Family Farm. We have gone there every Fall since we have been together. (Okay, well with the exception of one year, but I was swamped in grad school and K was working 3 jobs, so Fall kind of passed us by that year…) It has quickly become one of my very favorite traditions we have as a couple. Taking the long drive out to Maple Park and spending the day petting miniature pigs, loading up the car with the very best pumpkins, and picking delicious apples in the orchard. I look forward to this special tradition every single year.

As we pulled into the lot of the farm, Katrina read aloud a sign that said, “Start a Family Tradition,” and we both smiled. We smiled because we knew that is what we were doing. We smiled because we knew that next year, even though Baby Miller will only be 8 months old in the Fall, we will be taking our little one to the farm. We knew that we would be those silly parents propping the baby amongst the pumpkins for a photo op. We knew that years down the line, we would still be bringing him or her to pet the goats and pick out their own perfect pumpkin. We knew that our family traditions were just getting started…

(Yes, I was totally trying to show off my now starting to show ‘baby bump’, but clearly it just looks like I’m crazy. I swear it’s there! Clearly, this wasn’t the right outfit for it’s debut. We will have to try to take another photo soon, where you can actually see it’s more of a baby bump and less of just plump!)