We have words and phrases that we've kept in use from when the kids were little, the mangled ones, the sweet attempts. One of my favourites is the 'red danger', my nephew's name for the gas stove lighter. Now they come in many different colours but we all still say 'where's the red danger?'!
We have food traditions of course. And at birthdays, your presents always get piled in The Little Pram which is left waiting for you in front of the fire. It's a toy pram, an old fashioned one made of white wicker, that belonged to me when I was a very small child. My birthday's in the winter, hence the placement in front of the fire. Occasionally I've forgotten to do it and boy, do I get into trouble! The 18yo son is most insistent! We even specifically designed a storage space for it when we renovated our house.
Another very family specific tradition is at Christmas. My parents are English and we always had our Christmas meal in the evening. As kids my sisters and I were always up at dawn's crack, and so to keep us going through the day my mother decided to split the present opening. The Christmas tree was a small one and on a round table. Presents on the floor under the table were opened in the morning, presents on the table (smaller and often jokey) were opened in the evening, before dinner when we were small, after dinner when we were older. They're called Christmas Tree presents, and now with a big tree on the floor, we mark the gift tags with a little Christmas tree to differentiate.
Quality Streets at Christmas, always!
I have some sadness round some of these family traditions. There was only two years between myself and my deceased sister. When she died she took the memories of my childhood with her. She's the only person who shared them with me. My remaining sister is six years younger than me and was raised differently. E and I shared a room, had our own words and particular ways of comnunicating that we continued to adulthood. We had our own call and response if separated, and it makes me sad that I'll never get to do that again. This is making me a bit teary! FU breast cancer.
