Family Traditions

Trinsica:
My favorite family tradition is when we read the stories and sing hymns by the tree at night during Christmas time!

Travis:

The first tradition that comes to mind for me is rice pudding on Christmas Eve... Not only is the good luck fun, but I seriously can't get enough of that rice pudding! Christmas isn't the same without it :) 

And just singing together in general... I miss gathering around the piano and just singing hymns... It's nice to be around natural talent :)

Mom:

One of my favorite Traditions is going caroling at Christmas around the neighborhood. And of course Mom always wants to do "just one more house". And then going home and having hot chocolate. Love the Caroling and singing acapella with the family:-).

Jana:
Probably 90% of my favorite traditions involve food (shocker, I know!). I loved that my family had sourdough waffles every Saturday morning when I was growing up. I loved making tamales with my family for Christmas Eve dinner. It took hours for my mom, my brother, and me to assemble the tamales, but it always gave us time to talk with each other. I also love that in my family and in this family, Sunday afternoons/evenings almost always mean playing games as a family. And at my house growing up, playing games always meant popcorn. 😋 
With our little family, Friday is pizza night, a tradition that has helped us form good friendships with other people in our wards. Because hey, who would turn down an invitation for homemade pizza? 😊

Dustin:

For a few years while the older boys were at home, we used to have Christmas Eve wrestling matches. Those were so fun! I think one year Travis broke Dad's rib because he squeezed him too hard. But the bruises and carpet burns were worth it.

Around that same time, we played bingo on Christmas, every hour on the hour. Winner would receive a small prize, but the best thing was that it kept us socializing all day rather than retreating to our own spaces to play.

Tyson:

For birthdays Mom and Dad would hide gifts and create poem clues that lead to the next gift. I still remember "look high look low, look for a couch potato" then Travis found his gift under the couch. It was a baseball bouncy net thing that helped practice throwing/catching. This tradition helped involve the family more and created a lot of excitement. It also was extra work from Mom and Dad, a way they showed that loved us.

An Easter tradition that Amber and I have is rolling hardboiled eggs down the biggest hill that we can find and seeing whose goes the furthest.

[Comments:]
(Jana)

That's a fun tradition! How did that one start?

(Tyson)

Amber is awesome! She did this in college on a crazy hill on Utah State campus

(Amber)
Ha ha us, it's  a funny one. It started at Utah state. Some friends and I colored eggs and rolled them down a huge hill on campus. It was the best because there were so many old tree roots in the grass it was like mini jumps. We were chasing our eggs and cringing every time they would bounce in the air! There were so many people who did it the whole hill was full of eggs. I remember so many seagulls eating the eggs for weeks after.  The first time we did it was while we were in Alaska. Imagine 6 25 year olds on the side of a road crying because they were laughing so hard as cars were dodging the eggs.

Brittany:
Loving all these traditions! Growing up, every Saturday morning was "Donut Day". We'd wake up to a personalized list of chores and mine mostly included yard work because I loved being outside. All my siblings would negotiate trading chores on their list with a "I'll let you eat 5 of my donut holes if you'll clean my bathroom and I'll vacuum your room." Basically the older siblings conned the younger ones because donuts were way more important as a little person! Halfway through our chores mom would come home with loads of donuts, croissant breakfast sandwiches, sausage & boudin kolaches (Trav's favorite!) and fun drinks as a thank you for helping around the house. All of my siblings have carried on the tradition and now do this with their families. We usually do some chores, grab donuts and head to the beach or bike the trails. My kids understand where we are in the week by knowing how many days til donut day. 😂
(Travis:)
And people wonder why I'm fat?! ;) Yeah, it's hilarious... Our kids think "donut day" is something everyone does... Not sure if they even know the word Saturday... Its Fri, donut day, sunday

Brittany (cont.)
Another tradition I thought of was Guy Fawkes Day. Since my dad is British, a lot of our traditions are ones he had growing up in England. Guy Fawkes was arrested for trying to blow up King James I. So on Nov 5, we stuff some old pants and a shirt making a newspaper person and burn him over a huge bonfire as a reminder that the crown will live on. Long live the King! 👑

 We eat roasted potatoes and it's fun creating our person together. Trav has thoroughly enjoyed attempting to lite him on fire with a flaming arrow. 😉

Skyler:

I have always enjoyed our 12 days of Christmas tradition where we pick a family in need and then deliver something each night (doorbell ditching, of course) among with a scripture for the 12 days leading up to Christmas. I also loved making our traditional Christmas treats like the Christmas wreaths, divinity, etc

Amber:

My favorite growing up was cutting down our Christmas tree. I especially like how unique they are. My favorite memory was when Tyson and I were dating. I had been away for college and missed cutting down our tree so since I had moved back to Orem I really really wanted to cut down a tree with my family. You need a permit and they sell out quickly. I was planning on waiting in line before it opens to ensure I could get a permit but something came up and I couldn't make it. I asked everyone in my family and Tyson and no one was available to wait in line. I was so bummed!! I was going to have to settle for a "perfect" tree. Little did I know that Tyson had talked to Travis and he said he'd get the permit. Tyson surprised me with the permit and I was so excited I started crying! It was the best surprise! We ended up getting a huge tree. I think it was so tall we could barely reach the top when standing on the top of a step stool.