THE FAMILY JOURNEY
Halloween
Aside from our annual outings to local cider mills and pumpkin fields, we didn’t have many traditions for Halloween. Trick-or-treating already holds its own, deeply rooted tradtions. However, we did add some personal touches of our own. From the time our children were young, they’d select a stack of Halloween themed books to read as a family throughout the month of October. Many of these were classics from my childhood such as It’s Halloween by Jack Prelutsky. Others were more recent additions such as The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams. Bernie McGruder & the Bats in the Belfry was a fan favorite, which we read for many years as our children moved onto chapter books. As they got into middle school, we added more macabre selections by introducing the works of Edgar Allan Poe. We loved gathering each night as a family to read the latest twisted tale.
On the Saturday before Halloween, we’d gather as a family to prep our pumpkins for the upcoming festivities. As each pumpkin was masterfully carved, we would listen to Alfred Hitchcock’s Ghost Stories for Young People, another memento from my childhood. I pretty much played that record non-stop as a girl. It didn’t take long for it to become a treasured tradition for our children, as well. Alfred Hitchcock’s voice could make Grandma’s sugar cookie recipe sound frightening. His ghost stories brought just the right amount of fear to any Halloween event.
Once the sun set on the night of Trick-or-Treat, our family would listen to
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe while we baked the pumpkin seeds from our pumpkin carving party. With the mood properly set and our children clad in their latest costume concoctions, they were ready to conquer the neighborhood. At the end of the 2-hour window, our children returned home with their Halloween haul. Gathering in our family room, filled with fun fall foods, my husband and I checked the candy stash while our exuberant trick-or-treaters watched Scooby Doo episodes.
Thanksgiving
On November 1st, the day after Halloween, I’d go up to the attic and bring down our Gratitude Journal. We began a Gratitude Journal when our children were between the ages of 3-6. The purpose was for all of us to reflect over our blessings throughout the month of November, and not just on Thanksgiving day. The Gratitude Journal was part of our bed-time routine each night. In the beginning, we took an alphabetical approach. For example, on November 1st, each person would say something they were grateful for that began with the letter A. The next day, we’d focus on items that began with the letter B and so on until the letter Z. This was a fun way to review the letters of the alphabet when our children were young. Although, it wasn’t always easy to choose our blessings alphabetically.
At times our children would draw what they were grateful for on a given day. They were so very proud of their artwork. With each illustration, my husband and I would provide a description as well as the artist’s name. Afterall the works of young artists look…very similar at that age. We were all delighted by those primitive sketches, even years later. As our children got older, we removed the alphabetical parameters. Without those guidelines, everyone was encouraged to search for the daily blessings. Shortly after this switch, the daily entries for each person became much more personal. It was an incredible shift.
Whenever we traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday, the Gratitude Journal followed along. This allowed us to add extended family members we didn’t get to see very often to our Gratitude Journal. Sharing this tradition with our loved ones encouraged them to recognize and share what they were grateful for, as well. Through the years, some of those loved ones have passed away, yet we will always have those precious memories of the Gratitude Journal, recording what they were grateful for at that time in their life.