Leap Day: Developing Family Traditions

Howdy Humble Readers...

Have you had a good Leap Day? 

Things here started out pretty good, but then Ginny's teeth started bugging her and then I managed to ruin our dinner before it even got started (sooo stupid... I was going to make quiche, and I had taken out the pie crust out of the freezer.  I had also taken out a freezer bag of rhubarb in plans of making a rhubarb crumble.  Apparently the rhubarb bag had a hole in it, and as it thawed it leaked all over the pie crust.  And my cell phone.  *sigh*  Thankfully I was able to save my cell phone.  I wasn't so lucky with the pie crust).

Anyway, back to the point of this post... I've been doing a lot of pondering lately about family traditions. 

My family has always been big on traditions.  From what we have for breakfast on Christmas to restaurants we have to visit when my sister and I are in K-town.  And now that we are a family of soon-to-be-four, I'm feeling the urge to develop some traditions of our own.

I'm not saying that my Beloved and I are totally tradition-less.  We watch "A Christmas Story" every year on Christmas Eve, I make appies for Oscar night, and Valentine's day is treated almost as important as our anniversary.  But I want to come up with some fun things that we do as a family...

How will we make birthdays special?

Will we go watch the fireworks on Canada Day?

How will we celebrate days like St. Patrick's Day, the first day of school, or big achievements?

And I was thinking this morning that Leap Day would be a great day for some fun traditions.  It's an extra day.  Maybe it will be a day that we do 'naughty' things, like play hookie from school/work (once every four years can't be too terrible, can it?) and go tobagganing.  Or perhaps it will be a day that we go to the Big City to the North or South, and go to a museum or the science center.  Maybe we'll just go to a movie in the afternoon and eat junk food. 

Not all traditions have to be big.  And they certainly don't have to be perfect.  I just think it's important to celebrate the fact that we are a family.  To make the ordinary special. 

What traditions do you have in your family?  What traditions are you looking forward to sharing with your kids?