Every family has traditions that may have been continued from grandparents, or simply, have been started in a new marriage. Whether it's a family tradition that is done by the household family or even the whole namesake family, I think they are so important to have, especially to grow fond memories to look back on.
Growing up in a family of four, we did a lot of cool things that we never really put a name to as a "tradition" but to think about now, they actually were our own family traditions. These ranged from going to visit our grandparents every Saturday morning, Christmas often held at my parents house, to the Sunday ice creams after going for a family drive in my parents wagon. Its special to remember those moments now that I'm older, despite probably not appreciating them as much when I was younger.
Now that Ben and I have our own little household family and are trying to start our family, we understand how much it means to us both to carry on any traditions that we have grown up with and also start a lot of our own. Although we don't have a lot of our own household traditions at the moment, we are certainly collecting a lot of things we want to do with also our future children.
A tradition that has been carried on from when Ben was a child is the birthday breakfast in bed, as well as reflecting of the year that has been and the goals for the new year to come during each New Year's Eve. Those ones have actually happened from the day we first moved in together and will never stop! It's even cooler that Ben's parents still carry on with this tradition with the three children they still have living at home, so it's definitely something that means a lot to us.
Our traditions we have started ourselves include regular summer beach trips to Raglan (packing a picnic as well as enjoying an ice cream from the local stores), going to the Christmas Lights at Temple View before Christmas Day - we started this tradition last year and want to continue you every year as it's magnificent to see the beauty of the lights displayed, a cooked breakfast on New Year's Day which we also started this year, and also going to the Balloons Over The Waikato - we started going to the early morning event this year as a couple of years we went to the evening Night Glow.
The best thing I get from all these traditions that we do together is the memories and photos that transport you right back to the exact moment that you saw and did it all. I think when you become an adult and start having a family of your own, you begin to see how important it is to you and how special it feels to do something each year, noticing how each thing is slightly different as you get older.
Another tradition we have that we have had difficulty carrying out during the winter wet season is our peaceful picnics at Roger's Rose Garden in the city we live in. It's quite a popular area for picnics as its so beautiful with the roses blooming and the garden isn't locked at night, thank goodness. It's one of my favourite places to be in Hamilton - we even had our engagement party there.
Some might call me crazy following traditions or doing certain things every year but you know what, it makes us super happy. How I've always chosen to live my life is with no regrets and I don't have a single one as it's shaped myself and the other wonderful memories I carry with me. I would prefer to live well and busy with activities that become yearly than to sit at home doing nothing. Life is too short so live well, create those traditions you want to do, and capture it with your photography and presence! xx
"A family in harmony will prosper in everything" - Chinese Proverb
