Grandpa Kline's Poppycock {Not Your Average Caramel Corn}

Our friend, Rachel Noggle shares a little bit about carrying the banner of old traditions but flexing and adapting traditions to fit her family. Enjoy this post then check out her blog sometime...With twin infants, two goats and a yard full of laying hens, there is always something fun to read! Now...

There’s one in every family. :) I’m talking about the person who carries the “tradition banner.” I was that person in my family growing up. I was very determined that our family traditions had to be just so, and my poor little heart was distraught whenever something happened to interrupt or change our traditions. Ha ha! I was able to relax about it a bit as I grew older, of course, but I was still the strongest force in carrying on our family’s traditions.

After I got married, I remember actually thinking through how I was going to incorporate “my” family traditions into our new family unit. I had a few things to learn. ;) My hubby, fortunately, was not the tradition banner carrier for his family, so at least we didn't have conflicts of interest going on. However, as I came to discover, our new family unit didn't necessarily “fit” all of the traditions that I just wanted to swamp us with. So over a year or two I was able to let go of some that I realized just weren't working. Instead of enjoying the tradition, it felt forced, more like trying to pull a cart with a square wheel. It gradually dawned on me that while I was opting out of some of my child hood traditions, we were growing some new ones of our own! 

Adding kids to our family threw some new wrenches in my perfect tradition gears. I know that there are some traditions, especially centered around the Christmas holiday, that I really want to teach to my kids. But truthfully they are still a little too young for some of them. So rather than taxing their short attention spans, and stressing myself out to fulfill my traditional ideals, I’m shelving some of those traditions for a year or few until my kids can really participate and enjoy the fun of the traditional! 

Our oldest is 6 now and he is starting to grasp the concepts of having traditions. I know that he is going to be our “banner” carrier at least during his young years. My daughter will likely pick it up as well just knowing their personalities. So this year I’m going to attempt to kick-start some of the traditions that have been a bit “on hold” for awhile at least on a small scale. I’m interested to see how they grow from the seeds of my old traditions into our new family traditions as my kids and hub add their own spins on it as well! 

So I guess my point would be to be on the lookout for growing traditions in your families. Some traditions will carry over from generation to generation. Others will need to be phased out in order to make room for the budding new ones. In my own life my gauge has been how the tradition makes me feel. If I feel like I’m stressed out trying to make the tradition happen, I know that it needs to be tossed, or shelved for now. If it’s enjoyable and my family are all engaged and participating, then I know it’s a keeper! :)

Happy growing!!

Rachel Noggle