A Day in the life of the Van Hulzens!: Day 3--Family Traditions

Today I am thankful for family traditions. Those handed down from my family and those handed down from Jon's family. Plus, those we have started as our own family.

Psalms 145:13
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

*The most important family tradition that we have continued in our house is the one of going to church and raising our kids as Christians. To us, that is an integral part of who we are. Both Jon and I feel blessed to have been raised by Christian parents, been a part of loving churches, and attended a Christian college where we met and began the journey we are now living.

*Most Sundays after church we head to my parents' house for Sunday dinner. We all have our unassigned, but assumed, tasks that we will perform when we arrive. I set the table, Jon gets the fruit salad ready and slices the meat when it is ready. Mom does the vegetables, and tells Dad and the rest of us what to do. Dad gets the sour cream, milk, butter, pot holders and other things ready and put on the table. When one of us isn't there, we forget things, and the whole system breaks down. Yes, there's an analogy there to the body of Christ, but it really does work that way on Sundays! You can imagine how my mom gets in a tizzy when Jon isn't there and she's trying to get the salad done, and I'm not doing things the way she wants....

This tradition is actually one that is fairly common in small towns (at least in Christian Reformed circles) and one that Jon grew up experiencing. My brother and his family join us when they can; Jon's sister, Kirsten, used to join us a lot more often before she started spending more time with a special guy friend, and even Jon's cousin, Heather, joined us for about 2 years while she was finishing her Master's at the U and living with Kirsten.

*One of my favorite family traditions is the Sunday afternoon nap :) Yes, we also get out and enjoy God's beautiful creation, but, I love a nap!!

*Both Jon and I grew up taking road trips with our families in the summer. His family's consisted of a lot more camping than mine did. But yes, Joyce did do road trips. Usually to the same place (of course). It was to her parents in Washington State. One of my favorite things on those road trips was when my Dad would pull over by a little stream and we would take off our shoes and dip our toes in the water. It would be our little lunch stop. We do that quite often now with our family, and have done it when we're on vacations with the extended Van Hulzen family too. Alecia now says she thinks of me every time she sees a little stream alongside the road :)

By the Grand Tetons!

*Carving pumpkins with the Mellemas, going to high school plays/musicals with them and just hanging out with them :)

Old friends are the best friends. Jon and Scott's friendship goes back to high school. Heather's and mine goes back to college, although we are also related :) Our Dad's grew up in the same town and share the same birthday (but my Dad's a few years older!). Our kids have grown up together. We can go weeks without seeing each other or talking much, but it doesn't matter. We get it. Our lives are chaotic. But we're not offended!

*One tradition I remember from way back was going to Holiday Bowl in Albert Lea on Thanksgiving and Christmas! What made it extra special was that only the older cousins got to go :) That meant Mark, me, Heather and Matt. It was always nice to get away from the crying babies for a while (at least that's what it felt like! Sorry younger cousins!!)

*Thanksgiving. Every other year we have very different traditions! With my family it is usually pretty quiet with my parents and my brother's family. On the opposite years it is with the Geels clan. We can have around 60+ people for Thanksgiving dinner! This is Jon's mom's side of the family. His Uncle Philip has hosted us in Galena, Illinois for as long as I've been married to Jon (except for 1 year when Grandma was too ill to travel, which also happened to be the year that Aunt Hermina passed away). Talk about organized chaos. Family members travel from Florida, Korea, Poland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, California, Minnesota, Iowa and DC to make it to the bi-annual event. It is a blessing that our children have gotten to know the children of Jon's cousins. When Connor has attended Dordt Discovery Days he is able to go up to them and say hi with no hesitation. We can get together with them if they are in Florida at the same time as us, and the kids have fun swimming and hanging out with no problem!

Galena 2010

*Florida. My parents purchased their first Florida condo in 2002. Elianna has spent all but 1 Christmas in Florida. (Spoiled little girl!) We have been blessed to spend so much time down there. While there, we are able to spend time with my parents, relax as a family, see Jon's Aunt Lori, and Uncle Gus and Aunt Adri and whatever other relatives may be happening to visit at the time! We were even able to see my Uncle Ron and Aunt Tena along with their family when they were down a few years ago visiting my cousin David who was interning in FL at the time!

2012 with Aunt Adri, Uncle Gus and Aunt Lori

2009

2009 with the Prins family

2010 with the Stiemsma kids

*Camping. Jon's family did a lot of this when he was growing up. We still go camping with the Van Hulzen clan when we can. We've done some up at Uncle Glenn's cabin at Bog Hollow and the kids LOVE it up there! Some of the family members aren't die hard campers and would prefer cabins, so we try to accommodate them too :) One camping trip with my family that I remember (and there weren't many!) was in the mountains of Colorado with my mom's sister Linda and her family. One of the highlights was our Dodge station wagon not liking the mountains and breaking down on the way to the campground and us kids climbing up the side of the mountain and getting as many trucks to honk at us as we could :) I remember hiking around the campground and being deathly afraid of bears. Watching a movie on a white sheet and thinking that was the coolest thing ever! And swimming in a pool that was salt water and thinking that was the grossest thing ever and why would anyone want to swim in that kind of water? You couldn't open your eyes, and if you got any in your mouth, it made you gag!