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Show Thoughts From The Garden... by Tonya LeMone "Cultures grow on the vine of Tradition..." Jonah Goldberg What is the appropriate time frame for something to be called a tradition? We live in a world that is now constantly changing and remembering in this world of forgetting could potentially be a problem to the history books because tradition is synonymous with history. Winston Churchill said "a love of tradition has never weakened a nation; indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril." Our family traditions are part of our family's history. We write about them in our journals and we tell the tales at family gatherings and will often create a new tradition to add a chapter to the LeMone family history. During the upcoming holidays our family traditions seem to flow with such freedom there is no stopping them. We begin around Halloween time with the drawing of names for the "home-made" gifts we exchange on Christmas Eve. This was a tradition started 26 years ago when all of our children were very young and homemade gifts were really homemade. Often a piece of artwork framed was the big prize. As our children have grown and have children of their own, the homemade gifts have become somewhat of a competition and very creative to the point that the drawing of the name has been known to be "rigged" because of a creative idea already established for a particular person. A favorite Christmas tradition of mine is cutting the Christmas tree. The first Saturday in November we go to Midway, stand in the freezing cold to get a permit tag then the first weekend after Thanksgiving, we all caravan up to Daniels Canyon and pick out the perfect tree to cut down. Actually, it is far from perfect. . . .it is always too big, too small, too thin or too fat. However, the fun part of this tradition is ' trudging through the snow, freezing to death and living in fear of loosing grandchild or two. The other great part of this tradition is to cut off the bottom of the trunk about two inches thick and date it, and put where we are living or celebrating Christmas that year then toss it in the bowl with the rest of the tree trunks from years gone by. We have them saved since 1983 when our youngest daughter was born in Oregon. A new tradition started four years ago is the LeMone Family talent show on Thanksgiving evening after the feast of all feasts. Our family really has no talent, well maybe a couple of those that have joined our family, but we have fun laughing together as a family and laughing at each other. - Last year my husband decided the family talent show needed to be "kicked up a notch" so he built a portable stage with a backdrop and curtains that slide across the ceiling on an extension cord. It's quite the set design. We set our new stage up in the garage, hang spotlights and turn on the dryer for heat. We are finally ready for another year of singing, dancing, magical tricks and readings. The winner of the talent show goes home with a huge gold trophy and proudly places this honored prize in a very prominent spot as a reminder to the rest of the family of their excellence in talent. The coveting continues by other family members until next year's opportunity to compete. We have had several requests from "outsiders" to attend our fine performance but the rule is if you come to watch you must participate. That eliminates about 100 percent of the requests. I am not sure if they are afraid of what they will do or what they will see. Is there an appropriate time factor involved in establishing traditions? I don't think so. Traditions are about your family's history. Robert Louise Stevenson said, "Every heart that has beat strong and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world and bettered the traditions of mankind." That is history in the making and I tuck these traditions close to my heart because they are part of the chapters of the LeMone family's history book. See you in the Garden.... |