Our family is really fortunate because we get to eat dinner together often. My daughter has gymnastics three nights a week and doesn’t get home until 8:00, so that allows us the chance to eat together even if Hubby has to work a little late. We have certain consistencies in our dinner routine that have been with us for awhile – meatless Monday, grace before meals, a small dessert or treat if we’ve eaten healthy all day. But last week, we started a new tradition that everyone in our family is really excited about – Fancy Friday. We have a large china cabinet full of beautiful china, crystal, silver, and linens. Really lovely things, most of which we received as wedding gifts over 10 years ago. I bring them out every so often for a special anniversary dinner, birthday, or holiday celebration. But for the rest of the year, they sit in the china cabinet. Such a waste, really. So this year, I have made a vow to get them out more often and just because. Last Friday, after school, I told my daughter we were having “Fancy Friday” dinner and we were going to use our best dishes and eat in our formal dining room. She was SO excited! We opened up the china cabinet, and got out dinner plates, accent plates, bowls and crystal stemware. She “oohed” and “aahed” over how gorgeous everything was – it was so adorable! Then we picked out a nice tablecloth, placemats, cloth napkins, and napkin rings. We got to work setting the table. I showed her where to put each piece of silverware and explained why there were two forks. Once it was all set, we stood back and admired our handiwork. Then we moved on to decorating the table. I got out candleholders of different shapes and sizes and nice white candles to go with them (I love white candles for dining!), and we arranged them on the table. We also headed out to the yard to cut some fresh flowers. We didn’t have a lot to choose from since it’s still winter here, but there were few that looked quite nice in little vases. Then my daughter created an additional flower arrangement out of construction paper. She was really, really proud of it. We placed it right in the center of the table, in a place of honor. And that night, the three of us sat in our formal dining room, eating leftovers off our fine china and drinking sparkling cranberry juice out of our crystal stemware. I didn’t cook a fancy meal, just set a fancy table. It took so little time, yet felt so special. I didn’t spend a cent – it was all things we already owned. My husband was pleasantly surprised and my daughter was so excited to be a part of setting it all up. We had a lovely dinner together, laughing, talking and enjoying the gift of each other’s company!

New Year’s Eve is typically an adult holiday – champagne, staying up late, ringing in the new year with a smooch.  But that seems to change once kids are in the picture.  Ever since my daughter was born, it’s a rare occasion that I can stay up until midnight on New Year’s Eve, and especially if I’m drinking champagne!

So, what’s a family to do on New Year’s Eve?  My daughter knows it’s a holiday, and as with ANY holiday, she’s determined to celebrate it (back in September, she wanted to know why Target doesn’t carry Labor Day decorations, if that gives you an inkling of how important holidays are to her!) Now that she’s almost 7, we’ve had a few years to experiment with some different ideas for New Year’s Eve with kids. Here are some that have worked for us.

If your kids are old enough, let them stay up until 9:00 to ring in the new year by watching the ball drop in Times Square.  Invite another family over to celebrate with you.  Make sure to have party hats, noisemakers, confetti and sparkling cider on hand.

If your kids are younger, celebrate “Noon Year’s Eve” at noon.  If you’re looking to get out and about, the Discovery Science Center has a celebration during the day.  You can get all the details on the party HERE

Make a family time capsule.  Grab some type of container – a shoebox, oatmeal canister, coffee can, whatever you have.  Type up a questionnaire for each family member and ask them to fill it out.  If your kids are too young to write, you can ask them the questions and fill it out for them.  Some ideas to get you started:  Favorite song, movie, book, color, food, what did or do you want to be when you grow up, what is your favorite family activity we did over the past year, what activity would you like to try next year, if you could go anywhere on vacation, where would it be?  Next, gather up some recent family photos, or put on a silly photo shoot together and print those photos out.  You can also have everyone draw a family portrait and sign their artwork (kid’s signatures really do change over the years).  Put everything in your container and tuck it away in a safe spot.  When it’s New Year’s Eve next year, you can get the time capsule out, enjoy it together, and see how everyone has changed!

Have game night.  Start with an indoor picnic in the family room.  Homemade pizzas are great – you can buy the dough at Trader Joe’s or Fresh & Easy and let everyone roll out their own little pizza and add their own toppings.  Then grab a few favorite family games and have a night of friendly competition!  While you’re playing, talk about some of the fun things you did over the past year together, and what you might want to try next year.

Make a family collage.  This one takes a bit of upfront preparation.  Flip through the photos for the year, and print out some of the best, funniest, and most memorable.  Make sure everyone in the family is represented.  On New Year’s Eve, go through the photos together and decide which photos everyone wants to include in the family “collage”.  Pin them up on a memo board, poster board, or bulletin board hung somewhere in the house for everyone to enjoy (Ballard Designs offers some really pretty ones HERE).  Or you can make your own with these instructions from DoItYourself.com HERE. You can also purchase a collage photo frame ahead of time to use for displaying.  More of a tech-oriented family?  Pick out your favorite photos together and make a slide show to put up on the computer or TV anytime.  The great thing about this project is that it gets you talking and reminiscing about the past year.

Have a karaoke night.  If you have a karaoke machine, great.  If not, a selection of everyone’s favorite music and a few paper towel cardboard tubes or plastic water bottles to use as microphones will do.  Put on costumes, get out the video camera, and ham it up together.  Trust me, your kids will love it!

Watch the Rose Parade together on New Year’s Day.  This is one of my favorite traditions.  I can remember watching this with my mom when I was growing up, and it brings back such good memories.  I think there were usually freshly baked cinnamon rolls for breakfast, too!

The great thing about all of these activities is that you can do them before heading out for an adult celebration, or even on New Year’s Day.  And remember, however you choose to celebrate, whether at home or out, wild or tame, silly or pensive, doing something together as a family will make a memory for your kids that will last throughout the year. 

Happy 2011!

Family traditions are really important to me.  Being Italian, many of my family traditions are food-based.  Pasta, Italian sausage, Christmas cookies, and other yummy family recipes make a regular appearance at our get-togethers.  We also have other family traditions like game night, movie night (pizza plays a role there, so I guess that one is kind of food-based, too), pajama day, and celebrations for the first and last day of the school year.  I’ve modified some of the traditions I grew up with, incorporated new ones that we like, and as a result, our little family of 3 has our own repertoire of traditions that make us feel connected and special.

Christmas traditions are especially important to me.  We have our family tree with ornaments dating back to my childhood (1978 is the oldest ornament on our tree this year), a special little tree for our daughter started by my mom with a collection of Lenox ornaments, watching fun Christmas movies throughout the season, decorating a gingerbread house, and shopping for just the right gift for our loved ones.  But I’ve always felt that we’ve neglected to give enough attention to the real reason behind Christmas – the birth of Jesus.  We do have an adorable Precious Moments nativity set from my childhood that we put out every year, and my daughter plays with her Little People nativity set as well.  We have a couple of books about the meaning of Christmas that we read, but then those things get shuffled aside for the gifts, treats, and glittery decorations.  Quickly, the meaning of the holiday seems lost.

Our Family Tree

1978 Ornament

Real OC Daughter's Tree

Lenox Gingerbread Ornament

So, this year, I decided to introduce an Advent wreath into our seasonal traditions.  Many of us use Advent calendars, the type where we pull out a piece of chocolate or hang an ornament on a tiny tree for each day of December in order to count down to Christmas.  We have a felt tree with ornaments numbered 1 – 25.  It’s really cute, and my daughter loves it. But I wanted a traditional Advent wreath, with four candles, one for each week leading up to Christmas.

I ordered an Advent prayer and song book from Amazon:

Advent Prayer book

The book is very old-fashioned and sweet.  It includes bible verses relevant to the story of Jesus’ birth, along with a little real-life story, a small prayer, and a song for each day of Advent.  The stories are related to the season of Christmas and focus on the meaning and importance of the holiday.  The book also explains the symbolism of each candle – Promise, Light, Love and Hope – and the meaning of Advent.  Each day’s reading relates to the candle that is lit for that week.

And my daughter and I made a homemade Advent wreath with some items purchased from Michael’s.  The supplies cost approximately $20.  You can purchase Advent wreaths online, but I thought it would be fun to assemble our own.

Our Advent Wreath

Each night after dinner, we set aside about 10 minutes to celebrate Advent together.  Last Sunday night, on the beginning of Advent, we lit the first candle (that’s why one candle is shorter than the rest).  According to our prayer book, the first candle symbolizes “Promise” – the promise God made to us to send his Son.  We take turns doing the readings, then we say the prayer and sing the song together.  The first night, the song was “Joy to the World”, which we all knew.  The rest of the week, the song was different verses of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”.  I was the only one who knew this song, so I taught it to Real OC Dad and Daughter so we could sing together.  By Wednesday, we were doing pretty well with it.  My daughter says the singing is her favorite part.  After we finish the reading for that night, we talk a bit about what what we read and how we can celebrate it in our own lives.

Last night after we did our reading, prayer and song, we looked ahead to the song for next week.  It’s not one we’re familiar with, so we started improvising.  We sang it to the tune of “Jingle Bells” and “O Come All Ye Faithful”.  To “Mary Had a Little Lamb”.  Then, we got really silly – we tried it to the tune of our favorite songs from Shrek and Cars.  We ended with Real OC Daughter rapping the song while Hubs and I beat-boxed in the background.  And we laughed hysterically the entire time.  Not the most traditional Advent celebration, but I’m not a believer that religion always needs to be solemn.  I think God likes to see us having fun together.

So tomorrow night, we’ll light that first candle again, and do our reading and prayer.  But when it comes time to sing the last verse of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”, we might just sing our own version, “laughing all the way”!  And with our new family tradition, we’ll celebrate the true meaning of Christmas – love, togetherness, and pure joy in our hearts.