Ah, Traditions-----or is that Ah, Ruts?

Do you remember the song “Traditions” in “Fiddler on the Roof”? That is a great song, and it will make you want to sing the melody for a least a week. Traditions have been around since we all began. You always hear the term “built on tradition” It is an important part of life….. Well, we have them in our family. I am sure you all have them in your families. I would like to hear all about them in this blog. We have seasonal traditions and just things that we always do. I think traditions are basically what we all do, because we are comfortable with them and why change tradition? So, we go with it. Is that a rut? There is a fine line between traditions and ruts. Here is a list of ours:

Traditions:

1. Monday Night – Family Home Evening, this is a special night set aside for our families, our church has instructed us to enjoy these events by gathering our family and teaching/learning special life messages (during the Christmas season, we would go out and look at all of the houses with lights), singing together, praying together and oh, yes what the children wait for….the desserts. I have a few at the bottom that we would like to share with you. Now next, we have Friday Nights –




2. Date nights. This is a special day for us, Mom and Dad, or the girlfriend and boyfriend, which happened to be married for 35 years. You can go out and enjoy each others company without your little ones around, (the mothers' need that, it will give them a much warranted break). Now these are nights that we should all have. It will build each others love and bonds. Now those are our special days. The rest that follow are some of the holidays we observe. We, mostly, have fun, sometimes just watch videos/DVD’s and hang around, but most of all we follow traditions:




3. Ground Hogs Day is a day that my wife and I sit in front of the TV and watch the movie “Groundhog Day”. A 1993 movie about a cynical weatherman, (Bill Murray), who is forced to continuously re-live the worst day of his life until he learns to become a better person and co-starring, Andie MacDowell. We do a lot of holiday video/DVD watching. After almost thirteen years this could be considered a rut......we almost have all of the lines memorized. :-(




4. Easter has a lot of traditions, one being we would always dye the hard boiled eggs, remember when you used to use food dye and vinegar, well it started out that way, then came along all of those tablets, and other interesting ways to dye your eggs. Guess what, we now dye our eggs with food dye and vinegar, oh well, some things you can’t replace. Oh, yes there is one thing we always do other then just dye them, it is after we have the color just right we place them on the same white dish towel to dry that we have been using since 1971, at least that is what the date says…..It is one of the most colorful thing I have seen, but with so many "colorful" memories. I learned a trick from my Aunt Mara, after the eggs are dry, you take a little Wesson or Crisco vegetable oil and put it on a paper towel and rub the eggs,and it gives them a shiny appearance, which brings out their colors. You will be surprised at how nice they look. When we would wake up the next morning; for breakfast we will have the hard boiled eggs, hot cross buns or “Easter bread” and pasca, (this is from my Russian heritage), and orange juice. We will each have a special egg, that has our names inscribed on it with a white crayon (before we dyed them), from the night before and we will test our skills to see who has the “best” one by hitting the ends of the eggs together to see whose would crack and whose would come out the “winner”. After all of that and with full stomach we move to the living room and we let the kids run around the house and find “their” baskets, usually hidden really well, and we will play the hot and cold game to make it easier for them to find it. That would build the anticipation until they found them. You know what? Our kids are all grown now, but last Easter, we hid just Chocolate Easter bunnies and my last two kids, who are now in their late and middle twenties, reluctantly looked for them---I guess traditions take a hard time to break. I think, if I remember correctly they said it would be their last time……well we will just have to see about that. ;-(




5. Memorial Day – This is a day of memory of those who passed on before us. This might sound a bit morbid, but we would go, (as a family), to the cemeteries and check out the grave stones, dates and names. We have some really old grave yards here in Spokane. I remember one time we were driving up this one lane road to the top of a cemetery and this poor little squirrel ran across the road, I couldn’t stop or swerve so I did the old “thump, thump” thing, of course my kids were horrified, but it was him or us. ( you gathered by the thumps, it was him) My kids always seem to remember that and usually talk about it at our family gatherings. At the time, I just thought what an appropriate place to end its short/little life. :-O




6. The 4th of July—This is the time we all go out and have families barbeques, usually with hot dogs or hamburgers, potato salad, and beans, potato chips and all that comes with that feast. This is usually the first summer day of the season where we all can go out and enjoy the birth of our country. I remember the 1976, Fourth of July, it was a huge celebration of our nations 200th year, what a spectacular moment in time. Also, one time we went to this place Laclede, Idaho. The kids were very young, we were able to camp out at the local campgrounds on the banks of the Priest River and go across the railroads to this little spot in the road, it had a small convenience store and a bar and probably some other building on the main drag, but near the bar they had nice area of grass, and a Fourth of July celebration. It had fun games for the kids. My son found all of the money in the sand pit. (they covered pennies, nickels, and quarters), I think he found about ten dollars and that was the beginning of his career of making money (oh, they start so young). He also took 2nd place in the kids run. My youngest daughter won the small kids pie eating contest, which she thoroughly enjoyed, (but I am sure dreads to this day). I don't think she cared about the money. My oldest daughter was in it for the fun. I think my kids will always remember that day. We were really surprised at the fireworks. It was an amazing evening event.




7. Labor Day – This is the last day of Summer time for the kids, and we usually had the last summer closing picnic with our extended family. These are the ones when every mother, father, uncle, aunt, nephew and niece, (now with families of their own), gather together to have "the" family picnic. We always enjoy them and share family stories and fun. (I remember when I was the young one, now I am one of the "old" ones that the kids gather around to hear sometimes embarrassing stories about their parents) :-) The picnics are usually a potluck get together, always with a large variety of food specialties. Then after all of the food, warm weather and fun, we go back home and waited for the dreaded---




8. First day of School, at least for the kids, not so much for the Mom’s out there. Who see this as a day of “freedom”?




9. Halloween, and Thanksgiving are holidays that I have talked about in earlier blogs, you can check those out. But last, and not least ----




10. Christmas – Wow where to begin? When my family was younger we would go out and cut down our tree, (oh, the smell of a freshly cut tree!), and my wife would be in charge of decoration after I set it up, put on the lights and the garland (that we have had since we were first married). We did keep a tradition until recently which we had to stop, because it got too big. We would buy our kids two ornaments each year and the premise was to give them a box of their ornaments when they moved on to make their own families. The only problem is, my wife couldn’t part with these little treasures. (At least our hearts where in it) Our whole house was decorated with so many ornaments we ended up with several trees, (now the fake ones), of different themes. It seems that we can’t make up our minds on which one is the best. We keep adding to them each year. Talk about adding something each year, the lights!!!! It seems that a bulb would be burnt out each time you took them out of the box, these are the ones that say "the rest would stay lit", (that is a bunch of hogwash), and of course you can't find any to replace it, so we have to go buy some other lights. Come to think about it I think we have every strand of light we ever used. I don't know why we keep them, but, we won’t go there. During the three weeks before Christmas we would go out and buy gifts for our loved ones, (usually one or two and of course, ya right). I am the worst, I really like to surprise my wife, and she is always amazed each year on how I CAN surprise her, or is this a ploy for me to get a bigger, better present every year. hmmmmmm. Well anyway, you know, Christmas is the season that “Santa” is king for most of the country, but to keep our prospective we would read the Christmas Story, about Jesus' birth, every Christmas Eve this is after we toured the Christmas light in our city, we also watched “Scrooge” mostly the 1970 version, the one with Albert Finney as Scrooge, some of the songs are very catchy, (I won’t go over them now, I’ll be humming it for the next week). After that we would always eat the cookies that we made or bought, and stuffed dates. What a variety of sweet treats. We would always leave a plate of cookies and milk for the magical old man, (who would always leave an empty glass and cookie crumbs on the plate). My children, to this day swear that they saw "Santa's" foot prints in the ash in the fireplace! (Hmmmmm) In the morning, my wife and I would be jarred from our sleep with joy and noise of kids screaming “Mom, Dad, Santa came”!!! (We didn't learn until later, our oldest daughter would go down, earlier, and count the presents each of my kids would get and give them a report). With twinkles in our eyes we would join our children and look at the presents. What an array of color. It seemed the addition of presents made the main family tree that much "more" beautiful. My wife would sneak away and start cooking our favorite breakfast, scrambled eggs, sausages, cranberry muffins, orange juice and mugs, ( Spode of course), of steaming hot cocoa. (of course I had the largest mug and for a special reason). We had a terrible tradition. I even felt bad about it. But it was the best!! No one could leave the table until I was finished with my huge mug of cocoa. My kids would be squirming in their seats. Watching me take every sip, and at the end I would make this really loud sip and the kids would go crazy, but alas I wasn’t done this went on for it seemed like an eternity for my kids and they would run over to see if there was anything left in my cup. I have this great cup with a very broad bottom and it look like I have a whole bunch of cocoa in it, but actually there is very little. Then I would swig down the last of it and we would all run over to the tree. My oldest daughter would sit next to the tree, (which eventually ended up as my son’s responsibility when she went off to college), and I would sit in my favorite chair in the corner of the room. My wife would sit on the couch and the rest of the kids would be scattered around. My daughter would hand the first present to my son would bring it over to me, and I would read off the name and he would give it to that person. After all of this was done. We would start with the youngest and then to the oldest opening our presents to squeals and exclamations of joy. We would do that until all of the presents were done. We would then all stand up and hug each other afterwards…..talk about a family togetherness. We would end the day with our very fantastic dinner, (you knew this would eventually points towards food), what ever we decided, sometimes goose, crown roast, turkey as the main meat and my wife makes the best blueberry salad, (see below and it is to die for). One year we had a traditional “English” Christmas Dinner. It was the best. It even included “Plum Pudding”, which is an event in itself. It turned out fantastic, sort of reminded me of Scrooge and the Cratchit’s dinner.

Ruts:

1. Eating in front of the TV watching Ellen DeGeneres from TiVo and then some “special” DVD or video, (this didn’t start until the kids were out of the house and my wife and I, “empty nesters”, would be too tired cook).
2. Going out every Saturday morning to shop at the grocery stores for the next week’s menus.
3. Cleaning up or messing up the house, it depended on our moods, for the next week.
4. (This is not a rut, just something we do a lot and enjoy it). Taking little “day” trips to different locations or just to Coeur d’Alene (which is named after a local Indian tribe), to visit “our beach” and check out the beautiful lake, the houses and the shops. This is one thing about living on the eastern side of Washington State, you have all of the green lush, areas of lakes, mountains, rivers, and valleys that are breathtaking without all of the traffic.

Now for some of our Recipes (that I promised):

For family home evening---Chad’s, (my son-in-law), which we love, for his entry into our best dessert contest

Chad's Carmel Corn

Ingredients:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup white Karo syrup
1 can eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
1 cube (real) butter
1 tsp (real) vanilla extract

Directions:
Combine all, except vanilla, in medium saucepan and boil it until soft-ball stage on medium heat stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla, pour immediately over 4 bags microwave popcorn that are in a big bowl and stir until evenly coated. And enjoy. (This is the best!!! He made this while we were visiting in Texas. We have remembered it since.)

Note: Might be smart to remove old maids kernel, so you won’t be visiting the dentist the next day.

My wife’s blueberry salad

Blueberry Jell-O Salad

(This salad recipe comes from our friend, Pat Fechner, and my wife makes it every year for Christmas dinner)

3 3 oz. boxes of raspberry Jell-O
1 Can Wild blueberries with juice
1 Can Crushed pineapple with juice (20 oz. can)
3 Cups Boiling water

Mix all ingredients and chill till firm, stirring several times until fruit is evenly distributed.

Topping:
1 Cup Sour cream
1-8 Oz. Cream cheese at room temperature
2 Tbsp. Sugar
1 Tsp. Vanilla
1/2 Cup Chopped walnuts

Mix first four ingredients. Spread on firm Jell-O and sprinkle with nuts.

Easy Apple Crisp

This is quick and easy for the mothers that have no time before the family gathering.

Ingredients:
2 squares margarine (melted)
2 cans prepared apple pie filling
1 pkg white or yellow cake mix

Directions:
Grease 9x13 pan. Place 2 cans of pie filling in bottom. Sprinkle dry cake mix over filling. Pour melted margarine over dry cake mix. Bake it at 375 F for 40 min.

Ooey Gooey Cinnamon Delight

This is a great dessert for the family night, it is prepared ahead and cooked while you are doing you activity. Your kids will go crazy over the flavor and the smell will knock your socks of. Yummmmmmmm

Prep Time: 15 MinutesCook Time: 35 Minutes
Ready In: 1 Hour Yields: 15 servings

INGREDIENTS:
3 (12 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup margarine (melted)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1/2 cup raisins

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 9 or 10 inch tube pan.
2. Mix white sugar and cinnamon in a plastic bag. Cut biscuits into quarters. Shake 6 to 8 biscuit pieces in the sugar cinnamon mix. Arrange pieces in the bottom of the prepared pan. Continue until all biscuits are coated and placed in pan. If using nuts and raisins, arrange them in and among the biscuit pieces as you go along.
3. In a small saucepan, melt the margarine with the brown sugar over medium heat. Boil for 1 minute. Pour over the biscuits.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 35 minutes. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a plate. Do not cut! The bread just pulls apart.