{Day Eighteen} :: Traditions are the Spice of Life

I'm pretty sure our house never smelled better than the first weekend in December. That was the weekend every year that Mom started making Christmas cookies by the dozens. When I was old enough, that was the weekend we spent a lot of time together in the kitchen, measuring and mixing and rolling and flattening and baking. Every year. Without fail.

It was a tradition that stood for as long as I could remember, and there was a sort of comfort in knowing the cookies would come. I just had to be patient.

There were lots of traditions in my house. Dyeing eggs at Easter time. Choosing dinner on my birthday. Carving pumpkins in October. Watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Eating off Spode Christmas dishes from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. Putting out the Dicken's Village houses. Decorating the tree together. Attending the Christmas Eve service and having a great big spread of appetizers for dinner afterward. Finding a can of black olives in our stockings on Christmas morning.

I've come to learn traditions are important - not just to me, but to everyone I've ever talked to about them. They seem to break up time and give us something to look forward to. They added a little pizazz, a little spice to life. They mean connection to our pasts since often traditions are passed along from family member to family member.

But more than that, traditions mean time spent with people we love. Even as I got older and started college, every year I could count on these moments to bring me together with those most important to me.

What traditions did you love most? What traditions do you have today? 

What does tradition mean to you?

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This is lesson 18 in a 31-day series. Read the first 17 here.