Decoration Day and Holiday Traditions

I've always been a bit jealous of families who've managed to put into place solid traditions. Once you marry in, you know you'll go the same place every year for the 4th of July, or Memorial Day, or eat the same things every Thanksgiving, or wear matching sweaters for Christmas, posing for a yearly photo in front of the big Christmas tree that's covered with ornaments that have been collected over the years. Year after year they just do this, there's no need for discussion as to where Labor Day will be spent, or if there will be a family reunion this year. Of course there will be, and everybody will show up, even those you'd prefer would forget just once.

But we're not that family. Because we moved around the country, many holidays were spent with just the five of us - Don and me and the three kids. Very small Thanksgiving dinners, or Easter egg hunts. There was no need to draw names to exchange gifts - it was just the five of us. As our kids have grown up and some have moved away, each holiday is even more up in the air. We've traveled some, sometimes we've stayed home while sometimes they come to visit. As we're getting close to retirement holidays are completely up for grabs, with likely very few being spent at our house. I may have baked my last turkey. I may be okay with that.

My mother-in-law called Memorial Day "Decoration Day", and she'd faithfully spend the day planting flowers at the graves of her parents and family who'd already died. She was a purist and only set aside Veteran's Day for veterans. Memorial Day was for those in her family who were already gone. I loved that she called it 'Decoration Day', the quaintness of it. This Decoration Day weekend will not find us visiting graves, as any family members near us are alive and well. It will be spent helping Jeremy and Leslie and Landon finally move into the house they bought over seven weeks ago. It's going to take all hands on deck to pull it off, and likely the weekend won't culminate in cooking burgers on the grill, corn on the cob, baked beans, and some volleyball or horseshoes in their front yard. Frozen pizza and bag salad are much stronger possibilities. Once the little family is settled Don and I might sneak off to see a movie this Monday, when everyone else in America is busy grilling burgers.

With retirement looming we'd like to get some traditions going. We'd especially like to begin an annual or semi-annual family reunion / big ole fish fry at the lake, where everybody joins us, and brings all their family and friends who've been around long enough to feel like family. Maybe next year? I love that she called it Decoration Day, a day to celebrate the lives of those who impacted our lives, but are now gone. Ours will be spent celebrating life with those still around, and maybe reflecting a bit on those graves too far away to decorate.

How about you - do you have holiday traditions set in place, favorite places everyone gathers, and what's it like? Maybe I can live vicariously through others!