Yadiloh!

Every family has its own special traditions. Some of them pass down an heirloom, some have a recipe, and some of us have our own holiday.

Yes, I said 'holiday.'

When I first came into the lives of my 4 kids (before our Ashlind showed up) I wanted to make sure they had something special in their lives. No, Im not going to spend this blog talking about how I feel these awesome kids might have missed out on something in their life prior to mine, but instead am going to focus on what I hope I have done for them and even more so, if it has had a positive affect on their lives.

It was a few weeks before Christmas 2006 and I remember telling Anna Marie that I wanted to do something kind'a strange. I wanted to make the second Wednesday in December a special holiday called 'Yadiloh.' She nodded and laughed like she normally does and asked me 'what kind of holiday is this and what do we need to do?' ... LOL

Yadiloh always happens on the second Wednesday of every December. What happens during this holiday is all about family. We turn off all electronic entertainment (sans a CD player or MP3 player loaded with Christmas songs) and we get out all of our decorations for the tree and house. We spend most of the day decoration the Christmas Tree, telling stories about our favorite Christmas's and our lamest gifts, and our most heartfelt gifts. We drink Cocoa and hot apple cider and bake cookies and make fudge and then all sit in a circle. Each member of the family gets a goodie bag choc full of bizarre dollar store crap. Yeah, those crunchy Santas dipped in brown wax that supposed to be chocolate. LOL There are games that one of the parents come up with like Yadiloh Libs, or Jokes, or Riddles and Rhymes as well as questions for each family member that helps share what everyone's true thoughts are on and or about Christmas. It normally ends in laughter and everyone remembering what Christmas is really all about.

This year, our activity included painting those cheap $1 bobble heads that you can get at the dollar store. Each one had to have a story when we were done painting them. The goal is to send someone that we know our weirdly painted bobbleheads with our own description of what Christmas AND Yadiloh is all about. We also spent the evening playing improv games which was a blast! No TV. No Electronic Games. Just Christmas music, Apple Cider, and Laughing Hysterically.

Im not going to convince you to do the same thing.

Im just sharing.

This, to me, is what Christmas used to be when my grandparents were kids. This, to me is what it is for me today.

Sure, well still have Santa this year, but its not about the gifts. Its not about how much you get.

Its about the Yadiloh in our hearts.

Thats why I am smiling today. :)

- RAWK

PS: Yes, Yadiloh is Holiday spelled backwards. ;)