Independence Day Traditions: It’s All About Family

The temperature is heating up, and summer is in full swing.  For most families, it’s a time of heading out on vacation or catching up with distant relatives.  As the summertime seems to pass by at accelerating speeds, we encourage you to hold on tight and enjoy every single moment with your family.

Speaking of family… Family is a wonderful thing and, the older we get, the more we understand just how significant it truly is.  It’s not simply the big moments that are important, it is every moment – from the sleepless nights comforting a sick child or figuring out just how you’re going to get melted Crayons off the front seat of your classic Chevelle to the turning of tassels and watching teary-eyed as your flesh and blood says, “I do.”  Each moment shapes your family, not only in the present, but sometimes for generations to come.

Traditions are those things we do, time after time, which help to shape our family identity.  Family traditions, like America itself, are as unique as the people who carry them out.  There is no right or wrong way to create them, and, most often, they come to be without us even realizing it.  Maybe it’s the Memorial weekend cousins’ sleepover your grandparents hosted when you were young.  Perhaps it’s the order in which your family always opened its Christmas gifts.  Maybe it’s that same joke your brother tells every Thanksgiving or the backyard campfire or lobster bake on the 4th of July.  Each little one becomes a part of who you are.

As Independence Day approaches, let’s not get too caught up in the busyness of summer and miss taking the time to build family traditions. As frustrated as you may be with the child now standing before you covered in mud or the teenager rolling their eyes while you recount that embarrassing moment in Kroger, just remember that, one day, they will have children of their own, and these moments – both the exciting and the seemingly-benign – will become a part of the future generation.

From everyone here at Timberhaven, we hope you have a wonderful Independence Day.  May it be filled with delicious food and, most importantly, the best of times with your family and friends.