“Legacy Through Tradition” Chapter 15

We all have holiday memories and traditions. These traditions are passed down through the years to create foundational memories for your family that ultimately end up being part of your legacy.

Some of my own childhood memories are when my grandfather dressed as Santa at the Elks Lodge every year, my mom's stuffing recipe, and the Macy's Day Parade. Maybe your memories are from Halloween and dressing up, Thanksgiving dinner and the parade, or Valentines with your sweetheart.

Laura and I have several traditions we do every year. On Thanksgiving when the kids were young we started the day off sitting down and watching the Macy’s Day Parade, followed by, of course, the Dallas Cowboys. Go Cowboys! Over the past few years, since the kids have been out of the house, we text each other while watching the parade about the balloons and the awful lip singing. My part of the meal every year is the stuffing and sweet potato pie, and this year I taught my daughters how to make them.

Then the day after Thanksgiving we start the Christmas decorations. Laura does the inside and I would do the outside. When we were first married we had one tree and some other decorations. Every year since being married we added to our decorations and buy one ornament that relates to an event or personality for each of us. In the past, Gabriel received the power rangers because that was all he wanted to watch. Corina was given a princess because she loves Disney and dressing up. Chantelle received a McDonald’s French fry ornament because that was all she wanted to eat one year. Nique ornaments were always covered with little animals. Laura was always snowmen themed, and I got a Santa every year.

Our first Christmas together, we had the usual ornaments and our six special ones. Now, 27 years later, we have a separate tree full with only the special ornaments. As our children marry and have their own families, each one will take their ornaments to put on their tree and start their family traditions. Over the years, as we have added to our decorations, Laura decorates the inside and I would do the outside. Now we have 8-9 trees in the house and the outside typically looks like the Griswald's home. Our collection has grown so much, that during the past few moves, our Christmas decorations would take up one crate alone. This year I was unable to do the outside lights myself, but Nique and Gabriel stepped up to make sure our tradition continued.

As we head into Christmas, we bake and decorate cookies and make our gingerbread houses. It would be easy to say we "just" decorate gingerbread houses, but that would be a lie. We go all out: we make our own dough for all the parts, have pounds of candy for decorations, and the girls have perfected the royal icing to hold it all together. We send our pictures to family for judging and the cats are the tie breaker depending on which one they eat more of. After the holidays, we do our gingerbread toss. We stand as far away as possible and throw the houses into the trash... making a huge mess every year.

We have a saying in our family: “If you don’t believe, you don’t receive." Every year, I would set something up to prove Santa was real. A piece of Santa's pants stuck on the chimney, his foot prints in the snow outside the girls window, reindeer prints where the reindeer food was left on Christmas Eve, and of course, eating and drinking the milk and cookies like all dads do. As the kids got older, they would try to catch Santa by hiding a video camera or booby traps. One year, they almost got me until I saw the red light on the camera. So I made a video first showing the empty tree, then a bright light appeared with sound of Santa in the background. When to light went way it revealed a tree full of gifts. The girls believed they caught Santa, well that's my version at least.

The most magical story, though, was how Santa repaired Laura’s antique ornament. The kids were pulling out the ornaments and found Laura’s family ornament from when she was a child. They asked her to put it on the tree and when she did, she "accidentally dropped" it and it broke. Laura was distraught and ran to our room. The kids also were in a panic. I swept it up, put it in a bag, and placed it under the tree. I told the kids if Santa is real, he will fix it. The next morning, we looked under the tree, and there the ornament was - like new! The magic of Santa repaired the ornament and the belief in him continued.

Over the years, we continued our traditions and made adjustments as the kids moved away, but we still continue to reflect on the memories when we are together.

We all have our beliefs in something or someone. As I continue my battle with ALS, I don’t know how many years I have left to celebrate our traditions, but I enjoy them now more than ever for sure. I hope the little traditions Laura and I have instilled gave our kids something to believe in, and that they will continue to carry them on with their own families, leaving my legacy through our family traditions.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years. May your traditions be passed on through the generations!

Love and Blessings