I love family traditions. Family traditions can be very important. One of our family traditions was when each of our five children was born we would have a special ceremony with the children we had at the time and light a candle. The candle would signify our family and the love we had for one another. We would light another candle from the first candle to symbolize that our love for each other didn’t diminish when someone new came along, it grew. We had enough love for everyone and our love like the light of the candle just spread.
We have a lot of traditions that we follow at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now that our children are all grown up and have families of their own we alternate having everyone come to our house for Thanksgiving and Christmas. One year we get everyone for Thanksgiving and then the next year we’ll have everyone for Christmas. This way everyone gets to be together at least once a year. Almost every year for Thanksgiving when our children were growing up, we would go to Brian’s family gathering in Stockton, California. My Swagerty Thanksgivings started with several members of my father-in-law’s family and was held at my in-laws home for several years. As the years went on and people passed away our Thanksgivings got smaller and it was just my husband (Brian)’s parents, his sisters and their families who gathered together. Now we are holding Thanksgiving at our house. We are happy to be able to have extended members of the Swagerty family come as well as our own children and their families. Another tradition I have at Thanksgiving and Christmas is that I always make fruit salad and lentil roast for the dinners. I’ve been doing this ever since I was first married and we became vegetarians. My next door neighbor in Ashland, Oregon gave me the recipe. I added a few ingredients to the recipe and we’ve been eating it every year since 1971. I grew up always having fruit salad at special meals. It’s one of my favorite things to eat. I want to be able to eat it, so I always make it.
We would always go to my parent’s home in Toledo, Oregon for Christmas. I feel very lucky that we were able to make the eight hour drive in December over the mountain passes every year. I was able to spend Christmas in Toledo for 55 years! Now we get to have our children and their families come to our house ever other year. Our Christmas traditions include everyone who wants to, can open one gift on Christmas Eve. The unmarried members of the family put on a Christmas program for the rest of the family, with the two oldest acting as the MC’s. We also, play a game made up by one of our family groups. Each of our children has their own family who make up the group. The family who wins gets the “major award”, a replica of the lamp from the movie, Christmas Story and they get to make up the game for the next year. This past year, 2020, the world was in the midst of the corona virus and we weren’t able to get together. We got together electronically through the Zoom app and played the game! Another Christmas tradition is that Brian always reads The Night Before Christmas to our children when they went to bed. Now he reads it to our grandchildren. Last year (2020), he read it to the grandchildren on Zoom.
When the children were growing up for years and years every Sunday morning I made blueberry pancakes. Now when the children are visiting I usually always make blueberry pancakes for one of our breakfasts, usually on a Sunday.
Brian always sleeps on the left side of the bed. This was a shock to me when we were first married. I liked to switch it up and sleep on different sides of the bed. I’ve been confined to the right side of the bed since May 16, 1970. It’s ok, not a big deal just a bit of a shock at first realizing my days of sleeping on the left side of the bed were over.
On the Fourth of July for years and years when the children were growing up we always went backpacking with our friends. Now that the children are grown up and have families of their own, as many of us that can go, go to Gearhart, Oregon for the Fourth. My Mom and my sister and her family live there. It gives us all a chance to reconnect. After years of backpacking and never seeing fireworks now we go to the beach and are in the midst of fireworks going off over our heads!
We always dye Easter eggs at Easter. The adults hide the eggs for the children and then the children hide the eggs for the adults. The dogs usually end up with one or two of the eggs. We almost always go on a hike somewhere with the family. For our Easter dinner when the children were growing up, I’d make a white sauce and put it over the hard boiled Easter eggs and then put the sauce with the eggs in it over toast.
At Halloween we’d always go trick or treating to the same neighborhood on the west side of Redding, CA. We’d always end our trick or treating at Martha Tinkler’s home. She lived near the neighborhood, was a friend and coworker of Brian’s and she always had delicious home-made goodies waiting for us.
My Mom and Dad had a tradition of betting each other on the World Series games. Dad would always let Mom choose the team she wanted. They’d start out betting 10 cents and then the next day it would double to 20 cents by the 7th game if the series went that far the winner would get $6.40! I always thought that was pretty neat and made me appreciate the World Series.
I made the children’s lunches every day when they were growing up and going to school. They always got a sandwich, fruit and three cookies. I am a creature of habit and find myself doing the same things over and over again. It’s kind of crazy how a lot of these things became our traditions. I think it’s nice to have traditions that carry on throughout the years and help to define our family.
Swagerty-Aldrich Family Web Site 