Celebrate Today- ceremonies and celebrations to make your days count

Today marks 5 years since my dear friend Jodi's son named Owen was hit by a car.  It was a terrible accident that no family should ever have to witness. As 3 year-old Owen was crossing the street to come back over to where Jodi was, a minivan was on its way down the street and the driver did not see Owen. He was hit and sent 20-30 feet (no exaggeration here) in the air before landing face down on the concrete, unconscious.  There really is no way Owen should have lived.  But he did, and after all of that, he sustained only the smallest of scrapes-- far, far less than even a bike crash. And so today, January 22 is a miracle day for the Hailey family that is celebrated each year.   They all go out to dinner to mark the occasion to celebrate "Live Day."  I love celebrating just about anything, but this is one of the best reasons to celebrate for sure.    HAPPY LIVE DAY, DEAR OWEN!!  photo on our front porch with Owen and Jodi in September 2014 

We started the day off sitting around a big breakfast table in Oregon with our family friends.  My friend Jodi had been wanting to establish some kind of MLK tradition so we shared a beautiful book called  Martin's Big Words  and the "I Have A Dream" speech from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr around the table with them that we've been reading for the last few years as a family on this day.  As we headed back from our weekend away, we headed straight to the MLK memorial on Martin Luther King Boulevard as we got into town.   Thanks to the tradition that started in TN when we made a pilgrimage for several years to Lookout Mountain with Kristen Odmark, Leslie Mitchell and friends to hear MLK's speech read out loud, we have continued the MLK tradition here in Seattle here at the memorial we have in town.  (Kristen had this wonderful idea to make a road trip from Nashville to Lookout Mountain because in the speech, it says,  "Let freedom rin

Epiphany- a season of light....  Today is Epiphany  which marks the Season of Light.  Since I have a meeting for work tonight,  we pulled out our annual "chalking the door" liturgy last night  and carried on this tradition for Epiphany.  Over the years, it has become one of my favorite gatherings around our table.  Each year on Epiphany, a member of our family will use a piece of chalk and will write on our door. This year, Anna wrote the following on our doorframe: 20 C M B 15 My friend Kristin Kinser wrote the following and shared it with me at St. B's in Nashville when we were there: " This is a Christian tradition that has been around since the Middle Ages. January 6 th  happens to be Epiphany when we remember the visit of the kings,  C aspar,  M elchior, and  B althasar. Or some say that C M B stands for  Christus Mansionem Benedicat, May Christ bless this house.  The numbers represent the year, 2015.  Christ’s first home wa

One tradition that some families with young children enjoy is the  Elf   on the   Shelf tradition .   The Elf on the Shelf is Santa's special helper. He keeps an eye on children all over the world and lets Santa know how everyone is   doing before Christmas. There are several  books you can buy with a big elf to use and a story to go with it,  but we have enjoyed making something work with what we had on hand.  One year, we used two Lego santas and we hid them each morning for Anna and Taylor to find.  Other years, we have used an elf that had been in our great grandmother’s Christmas decorations for years.  It's been fun to hide the elf in crazy spots each morning with clues and scavenger hunts on some days or to use some ideas that are all over the web. A few from parenting.com are below here:  Tricky Elf  - Use a roll of toilet paper to “TP” your Christmas tree or child’s room and put the empty roll in your elf’s arms. Snow Angel 
-Sprinkle flour on the count

At our house, most mornings, we just have cereal and oatmeal for breakfast. But when there's a reason to celebrate, it's fun to pull out the griddle and whip up some pancakes to spiff up the morning routine.   Food is such a great way to highlight a celebration and to make an ordinary day a bit more special.  Here's to a great start to 2015!  Using a squeeze bottle with the top cut off a bit more to allow for more pancake batter to come through, it was easy to shape the 2015 numbers for a fun treat to start the day (and year!)...