Creating memories in a blended family of eight is a mighty task.
Just leaving the house requires two cars, and if we want do anything our tweens and teen think is “fun,” we may as well take out a second mortgage on our house!
But I recently had a lightbulb moment. It was February, and due to illness and life, we had needed to cancel our Christmas celebration with my parents twice … which resulted in Christmas in February!
My mom and her husband left the tree up until we were able to get together, and they were definitely embracing the Christmas theme with music and festivities. They are weird — I am not, ha!
We have a no-phone rule at my mom’s Christmas, which, you guys, means the children play and talk to each other! It was fabulous.
But what we also have, even at Christmas in February, are strong traditions that the kids love, and only need love and time to make happen.
Every year the kids say that finding the pickle on the tree and the scavenger hunt are their favorite parts.
Do you know what this means? It means that the presents are not what they remember, and are not even that important! I mean, we all know this, but these little buggers wear you down so it’s hard on the follow through sometimes.
But for real, when I look back at all the times they remember, it’s not the stuff they begged for until they made me just throw money at the them so they will, just, please, stop!
I can’t wait to see how they take these small but important traditions and make them their own.
We may not be able to do all the crazy fun things a family that can travel in a mid-sized sedan can do, but we are strong in our family traditions game, so I will take that as a parenting win!
– Alecia Jacobson
Alecia Jacobson is the owner and trainer at Gym 608 and an ICF/ACC Certified Professional Coach. Alecia helps women who feel stressed and overwhelmed created healthy lives filled with passion, purpose and freedom. She is a mom and step-mom to six kids ages two to fourteen and has an amazing husband whom she credits for keeping every fed.