Parties

This morning I found a post on celebrations-a Mom who says she has frequent parties for her kids on no notice. And she has 13 kids! I've had the subject of parties on the back the back of my mind. Sometimes after Easter the whole celebration season seems to begin. We have Easter, Dad's birthday, Mother's Day, memorial day, Mimi's birthday :( , the end of school, Leanna's birthday, Justin's birthday, Tom's birthday, the fourth of July, Sue's birthday, Jacob's birthday, My Mom's birthday, Laura's birthday, labor day, and the start of school again! Followed soon after by my birthday and Timothy's! Then Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas season!

This year instead of Mimi's birthday we'll be celebrating my cousin's wedding (not that it's an actual substitution, just they're around the same time). And I think in April Laura will be getting her master's, so that's another celebration!

Our parties are pretty low-key, the main ingredients are just family, food, balloons and presents. I don't bother to hand out party favors, and I don't do expensive restaurant parties or things like that. But I've been thinking about how to improve them. I know, I know! Claire and Garrett vote alcohol! Sometimes we remember to find music to play, generally not. I usually intend to have music and a lot more decoration. I like to make their birthdays really feel special and different from any other day. But unfortunately I'm limited not just financially, but with my time. So much of my cleaning has to be last minute, and I try to make the food last minute so it's fresh. And I've been getting experimental with birthday cakes in recent years, that takes time too. My sister Laura generally comes over a few hours early to help with last minute preparations and that helps tremendously! My Mom will usually slice up some vegetables. Which is in itself another change in recent years. Since my Mom's diet changed so drastically after her heart attack, so to has our food on holidays and parties changed. I think this is mostly for the better. I like that my kids will grow up thinking it's normal to munch on peppers, carrots, broccoli, and celery in addition to chips and pretzels. Certainly different from our parties! But I also know that my in-laws haven't seemed to have as much fun lately either, so I'd welcome suggestions from them, as well as anyone else, on different ways to add to their enjoyment.

How to celebrate Valentine's Day

I thought this post ( from parentdish) was interesting for several reasons.
1. Is it bad to force sentiment on people?
2. Is it ok to change a romantic holiday to a family affair
3. Is it a bad thing to celebrate too many holidays?

Valentine's Day - Family Affair or Over-Celebration Nation?
by Sabrina Weill Feb 9th 2009 11:00AM
Categories: Holidays
After every ad for flowers, chocolate and sweet romantic moments, my wonderful, tragically unromantic husband laughs boldly and whispers: "Sucka!" He actually can be romantic, he just doesn't like to be told to be romantic. By Hallmark. So the only way I'm going to get to celebrate Valentine's Day is with my kids -- and that's just how I like it. Now that our little Prince is 7 and the Princess is 4, the Year of the Valentine here. A search for cute ways to celebrate turned up a story about how, due to our overly kid-centric culture, V-day is widely considered less of a romance opportunity and more of a fun family affair, with moms baking heart-shaped pancakes and decorating the living room with pink paper chains and hearts rather than dressing up in a satin teddy or thinking up new ways to wow him. Hmm ... I do like pancakes. But then one psychologist warns that turning this special holiday into a family event can rob couples of the potential for a deeply romantic night of tender bonding. Some moms also fear that turning Valentine's Day into a family celebration provides another opportunity for "celebration creep." The "Celebration Creep" is not a Chuck E. Cheese mascot, but the idea that if you celebrate everything, kids won't be able to tell what's worth celebrating. I see their point, and I guess that could be the case if a family acts like Valentine's Day is a good reason to paint your whole house pink before flying your crew to Italy so they can learn a romance language. But truthfully, any anti-celebratory sentiment makes me a little sad. This is my Valentine's Day year with my kids. So stop raining on my pink parade!This February 14th, will we be making Valentines? Yes. Heart-shaped pancakes? Maybe. Pink ponies?? Ah, no. And what I also won't be doing this year is making last minute reservations at a local place for a second-rate, overpriced prix-fixe meal, nor will I wait expectantly for a Tiffany blue box that isn't coming. For us, family-style Valentine's Day is a happier, calmer way to add a little sweet-themed celebration to our lives. And my husband and I will surprise each other with romance on other, non-romance-prescribed days. We both like it better that way.

Do you think a family-fun Valentine's Day is a beautiful idea or just another example of "Over-Celebration Nation." and we should leave the love holiday to the grown-ups?
Sabrina Weill is editor of PrincessLovesPink.com.

I understand people who feel that the holiday is too commercialized and they hate feeling pressured to act a certain way. But I also know people who use that as an excuse to not celebrate the holiday-which would be fine if they showered affection on each other regularly, or on other days and times that they determine. But I think a lot just don't. So if having a holiday encourages us to think about love (in all forms) and allows people to add a little, even comercialized, romance that they wouldn't have otherwise-than it's a good thing.

I think it's a good thing to celebrate love of all types, not just romantic. I had a female friend in high school buy me yellow roses for valentine's day one year, just to be nice. I thought that was really sweet. It's nice to recognize all types of relationships. So long as it doesn't become an excuse to forget about your partner, there's nothing wrong with adding to the love party, in my opinion.

I like the idea of more fully celebrating each holiday. I think that traditions for each holiday become family rituals that parents and children can look forward to. I haven't done much for Valentine's Day in the past, but I'd really like to start. Kate, of Jon and Kate Plus 8 inspired me on that one!