#52 Stories- Week Three

 Prompts for Week Three:

1.  Tell a story about a family tradition.

Rick: I’m sure others might mention this same tradition, or maybe they won’t because it is so obvious. But I’m choosing it anyway.

On Christmas Eve, we gathered with our Christmas stockings and began a procession to hang up our stockings. We would hang them up in age order, from oldest down to the youngest. Then on Christmas morning, as soon as all were awake and ready, we would gather again for the stocking processional. However, in the morning it would be in reverse age order, from youngest up to the eldest, each retrieving their filled stockings in turn.

 

Part of being “ready” on Christmas morning meant wearing socks. The rules on Christmas Eve were more relaxed, but on Christmas morning, being dressed in socks was specifically part of the tradition.

 

Linda and I have adopted the stocking processional and the Christmas morning socks in our family as well. Many years back, we added the tradition of taking a picture of our Christmas morning socks – from the top down, all gathered in a circle, each of us putting one socked foot into the picture. We often choose crazy or colorful socks to wear. We wish we had started the “picture of the socked feet circle” tradition earlier. It would have been fun to have the whole series of pictures as children were added to the family and as their feet grew.

Judy:  (We did do the same thing on Christmas Eve and the wearing of sox.) Turning eight was a big deal in our family.  Of course, it was connected with the opportunity to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which was in itself a very important event.  I took that very serious and I was very happy to be baptized in the Jadwin Chapel in Richland, Washington, on July 3, 1963 by my dad.  I was confirmed on the following Sunday, July 5^th.

The other tradition in our family was that on your eighth birthday (or around that date) you got to pick a restaurant and an activity to go do with Mom and Dad alone.  You were in total charge.  This was a very unusual experience in a family of eight children with limited funds.  Going out to eat was very unusual for us at that time.  I picked a Waffle House in Richland (I am not sure it was a “The Waffle House” but it was a restaurant that featured Waffles.)  I had a waffle with ham in it and I still remember that it was an amazing waffle with yummy syrup (not like Valerie’s memory of the Spaghetti from her 8^th birthday memory shared earlier.)  We then went bowling.

We had the intention of doing this—but as I remember it , we didn’t.  Tosha arrived right at the time of Jessica’s eighth birthday and while we did her baptism and had a gathering at our house afterwards which was so great, life got very busy and I don’t think we ever did the dinner/activity with her.  Then we were just moving to Texas when Scott turned eight—another crazy busy time—and if you don’t do it for the first two—can you really start the tradition for the last three?  So no, we didn’t keep this tradition.

Valerie:

We always did the stocking processional with our kids and most of them are carrying on the tradition. We also took our kids out to dinner when they turned eight. We love sharing that when it was Justin's turn he had his choice of international flavor in Israel but he chose McDonald's. I guess his actual baptism made up for it--it was Israeli-flavored, in the River Jordan.

As I think of other traditions from our growing up, I think of weekly Family Nights, always attending our church meetings, and nightly scripture study and family prayer. I think of singing around the piano and playing games. I think of a lot of laughing, all of the time.

2.  Write the story you have heard about how you were named.

Judy: How I heard it was that Dad liked the name Judy Ann and told Mom while they were dating/engaged that their first daughter was going to be named that.  She said she was so in love she would agree to any name at that point, but felt I should have the option of Judith—just in case it suited me better.  Dad doesn’t know why or when he started liking that name just that he did.

3.  Tell about a birthday gift you received.

Judy:  When I was turning 11 or 12, I really REALLY wanted a certain stuffed dog that was popular that year.  I wasn’t a big fan of stuffed animals even then, but for some reason I really wanted that toy dog for my birthday.  Even now, I remember how intense that feeling seemed to me.  I would think about it when I woke up in the morning and when I went to bed at night.

Finally, a few days before my birthday, I couldn’t take the suspense anymore.  I had noticed some sacks in Mom and Dad’s room on the shelf in their closet.  So, when no one was home, I got a chair and peeked in the sacks.  I was so relieved to find the exact dog I wanted. As I remember, this was the first time that I ever had peeked at gifts before my birthday or Christmas.  I was excited to see it there, but I put it all back and waited more patiently for my birthday.

However, on my actual birthday, I remember opening the present and not really being excited—because I already knew.  I learned my lesson that year that part of the joy of gifts is the unknowing and the sharing the surprise with the gift giver.  Since then, I have not intentionally peeked at hidden gifts.