Tradition!

It's no secret to anyone in my family that I'm big on traditions.  I've had a bit of influence on my siblings too... over the years there has been many a horrified cry of "but it's tradition!!!"  in the face of a proposed change.  As I've gotten older, I've come to find that it's okay and even fun to bend or break tradition at times, but other times its just as fun to uphold traditions and create new ones.

Some of the best traditions are the silly ones, and in our family, they often revolve around food.  For example a number of years ago after two or three consecutive vacations on which we happened to bring Twizzlers (we never have them any other time), it was declared a Family Traditiontm to always bring Twizzlers on vacation and one time when my mom forgot, we protested until she found a local grocery store and bought some.

This past week my family and I took a three day trip up to the family lake house, and as traditions went, it was no different.  We ate breakfast in the car (though bagels this time, not donuts) and we brought Twizzlers.  We also brought a pineapple.

In a Psych inspired moment as we were unpacking, I decided that the pineapple The Pineapple, should be placed in the middle of the floor.  Officially, there is no reason and no explanation.  It is The Pineapple, and you do not question The Pineapple.  Unofficially, it was a random moment of inspiration and I was going to put it on the counter but the longer it sat there the more it seemed like a good idea to just keep it there and we weren't planning on eating it until the last day anyhow.  And so, another tradition was born.

We played games around The Pineapple.

We prayed around The Pineapple.  (Note I said around and not to.  Gosh guys, we aren't pagans!)

And on the last day we sadly cut up The Pineapple.

Now from heareverafter we must always bring a Pineapple on vacation.  It's Tradition.