Family Traditions.

Here are the last couple of Q & A's, from the wonderfully lovely Britt.

How did you choose Ezra's name?

The short version: I was completely obsessed with finding a name and it consumed my entire brain for many, many moons until I became desperate and started looking at the Content Labels of all the food I was eating to see if I could possibly find a secret gem of a name there. "How about Fructose? It has a nice ring to it!" (You know, bordering on Cat Lady Crazy...)

The long version: click HERE.

Do you celebrate holidays? And if so, are there any family traditions you hold to?

In our little household, we do indeed celebrate Holidays because we see them as a perfect opportunity to bond and create memories and drink margaritas while lighting things on fire.

I really LOVE Holidays. Every single one of them. (Especially Groundhog's Day. There's something about waiting for an oversized rat to climb out of a hole in the ground that just gets my heart pumping. Oh! And Flag Day! Don't even get me started on Flag Day!)

But seriously, some of my fondest childhood memories are sprinkled with Christmas dust or revolve around elaborate Easter basket Scavenger Hunts. I really do believe that celebrating holidays in unique and fun ways can bring a family closer together- can give them something special and precious to look forward to while giving them freedom to be creative and goofy at the same time. They are perfect little opportunities to break out of the mold of everyday life- to set time aside and be intentional about family.

Family is a beautiful word, isn't it?

All of this being said, I must be honest about something here: I really SUCK at planning ahead and creating these wonderful, gooey Holiday moments. This is something I have really wanted to change about myself for a long time, and I think about it way too often to have not actually done something productive to change it by now. I am horrible at Birthdays and birthday gifts. I'm lousy at planning meals and fun activities and get-togethers and being generally prepared when Holidays sneak up on me every year.

(Actually came from my mouth LAST FRIDAY: "Whaaa? Easter is this Sunday?? GASP!")

It's one of those few remaining areas where I get down on myself and tell myself that I don't quite measure up as a mom or wife yet. (Lame, I know.) Afterall, a GOOD MOM would have remembered to (at the very least!) buy her son a little Easter Basket while she was at the store so that he could participate in Egg Hunting Activities and not be reminded by the pictures for years and years that his first Egg Hunt was graced by the presence of a plastic WalMart grocery bag, right? (Lucky for me this year they had extra Easter baskets and I was spared the embarassment.)

We don't really have any traditions of our own just yet, but I really (rilly, rilly!) want to change that.

I know that as Ezra gets older it will be easier and more natural to spend time planning things because he will be able to participate more and remember the things we do. And I also do know this for sure: Our traditions will never be about all the crap. You know, the Holiday crap? The billions of useless Holiday things stuffed on the shelves in the stores every month? Three months prior to the actual Holiday? I really don't want our Holidays to be an overdone, stressful event on my agenda. I don't want to feel like I have to spend oodles of money to make the day really count.
Turkey Day Wishbone Combat! (if you look close, you can see the bone chunk flying through the air... um, NO ONE won that year...)
When I close my eyes and picture a perfect Holiday, I see people around my dining room table. I see everyone pitching in. I see simple meals and lots of laughter. I see goofy games and Christmas fort building and camera flashes snapping pictures. I hear good conversations about the true meaning of the day and what it means to us personally. I see people in my home that have nowhere else to go to celebrate the Holiday. I see gifts that mean something and gifts that fulfill longstanding needs being passed from hand to hand.

And, over there I also see gallons upon gallons of delicious Margarita Mix.

And possibly some firecrackers.

Thanksgiving ZOO day! Wee!