Sculley Family Traditions
We have a lot of traditions in our family, from a variety of sources--some were handed down from our parents and grandparents, some were borrowed from others, and many we came up with ourselves!
Here are some of our most cherished traditions:
Easter
We consider Easter to be the most important holiday on the calendar, because it's a celebration of Jesus' resurrection, which is the pivotal event in Christianity, and in fact, all history! While we don't do the "full Lenten" thing, we do try to take time each day during Lent (the 40 days prior to Easter) to reflect on what Jesus has done for us. We have several devotional books that aid us in this. In recent years, we've added the Lenten candle tradition--there's something about candlelight that helps create a more reflective mood. For several years, we would rise at 5:00am or some such hour and hike to the top of Stone Mountain as a family, to view the sunrise and participate in a worship service on top. We haven't done that since K & E came home! Perhaps we'll pick it up again soon :) We always enjoy the worship service at the Atlanta Vineyard, and each year I am moved to tears of sorrow and joy. The children adore Easter egg hunts, and often do them throughout the year, not just at Easter time! We love to decorate eggs together, watch one of our movies about the life of Jesus ("Jesus", "Matthew", "Jesus of Nazareth"). And we always bake, decorate together, and enjoy a cross-shaped cake to end our celebration!
Christmas
. . . under construction! . . .
Memorable menu from Christmas 2007 - cider drinks, cranberry relish, candied sweet potatoes, whole wheat potato rolls, curried broccoli casserole, oven-roasted veggies, brisket, ham, christmas cake, au gratin potatoes, corn muffins, rosemary bread, smoked sausage, jalapeno cheese dip, chocolate pudding pie, collars, danish, jello, whipped cream, biscotti . . . 8 Sculleys + 2 Tillers + 3 Carnahans - much fun!
birthdays
One of the trademarks of our family is the week-long birthday celebrations we do for each person in our family (and anyone else living with us at the time). So for at least 8 weeks of the year, we are partying big-time! Each birthday celebrant is honored with 7 presents, one per day for the week leading up to their birthday. The children love this so much that they usually make more presents, so often there is more than 1 present a day to open. It's a fabulous way to honor each person without placing all expectations on a single day. (We've all had hopes dashed due to rain or other unexpected surprises!) The culmination is of course a birthday party, which ranges from a small (!) family dinner to a sleepover or any kind of party in between. J is our birthday guru, and can usually tell you exactly how many days to each person's birthday at any given time!
Rites of Passage
bed times -- Mainly because we have many children very close in age, early on we instituted graduated bedtimes. We also wanted to ensure that Paul and I had time for one another each evening, especially when the children were very young. Here's our bedtime schedule, which we stick to fairly closely (the older children love to help enforce these times!). Ages 5 & under: 7:30pm, ages 6-7: 8:00pm, ages 8-9: 8:30pm, ages 10-11: 9:00pm, age 12: 9:30pm, age 13: go to bed when you want to. So every other birthday from age 6, they get to stay up half an hour later. They love this. We got the idea about letting teenagers decide when to go to bed from a visiting pastor--that way they get their staying-up-way-too-late-every-night thing out of the way a long time before they drive or go to college.
pets -- We have a tradition that when a child turns 11, they may choose any pet they want, within reason, as long as they agree to look after the pet. We've two children reach this wonderful milestone so far, and P has Slippers the cat to show for it! He's a beautiful feline, and P is a delightful papa to him. J chose fish, so has a gorgeous fish tank in the school room. He started with 6 fish, but two of them mysteriously died or disappeared, and we suspect the tinfoil barbs ate his guami and tiger barb. It will be fun to see what we end up with as the other children reach the age of pet selection! [Pets we've had in the Sculley household -- Snoopy & Sam {cats}; Misha & Mot {cats}; Snowy, Blizzard, & Jaffa {cats}; Propeller & CC {gerbils}; Slippers {cat}; Jonathan's fish; Paul's fish (he has lots of African ceclids)]
becoming a teenager -- This idea was borrowed from the Jewish Bar / Bat Mitzvah tradition. We love the idea of welcoming the child to adulthood at age 13, and from that point on, treat them as an adult (both in privileges & responsibilities!) Some of the ways we celebrate are: have a special dinner, with the honoree inviting those who they feel have had the most significant influence on them. Each person in attendance has the opportunity to give a special speech directed to the teen. We give our son or daughter a special gift. Then, they may choose any destination within the continental U.S. and travel with the same-gender parent for a long weekend (possibly a week) vacation any time within the year they are 13. P's celebration was at a lovely French restaurant with about 20 males (adults & youth). He received many words of affirmation, encouragement, blessing, and advice. I made a 15-minute video of his life so far, which was showed at his dinner. His special gift from us was a real shield (with a cross painted on it). We plan on giving him an additional piece of armor each year until he's 18, so he'll have a complete set (armor of God!). Paul and P went on a very special trip to Wolf Creek, Colorado (P's choice--he wanted snow, and they sure got a bunch of it!). They enjoyed skiing and visiting Mesa Verde State Park. P is really enjoying his bedtime privileges, and was pretty sleepy the first few months, but has come to the conclusion already that it's wise to get a decent night's sleep when you can :)
Undoubtedly, we'll come up with other rites of passage as our kids approach adulthood, but this is what we have so far :)
Date nights
. . . under construction! . . .
Anniversary celebrations
. . . under construction! . . .
Whose day is it?
When the children were younger, this question was asked daily, many times a day, at our home. Everything, and I mean everything, hinged on whose day it is. Who gets to go first, who gets to sit where, who gets to choose a cup, spoon, movie, gift for the birthday person to open, etc., etc., etc. Being a very mathematical family, we use a simple formula to determine this in a somewhat fair manner (and the children seem to be satisfied with this). Firstly, we determine who is in the "running" (e.g. if a movie is being chosen, it could be out of all 6 children; if a spoon is being chosen, only K & E are in the running). Next we divide the day of the month by that number. The remainder determines whose day it is (1 corresponds to the oldest child in the running, 2 the next, . . . 0 is the youngest child in the running). For example if all 6 children are in the running, and it's the 16th of June, then 16 divided by 6 has a remainder of 4, so it's C's day, since C is the 4th oldest child. It's very simple if K & E are the only ones in the running, and trust me, there are a lot more decisions to be arbitrated with twins--if it's an odd day, it's K's day; even days are E's. Slightly uneven, but so far so good! This whole system has cut down these kind of squabbling arguments to a negligible amount. It's harder to argue with a calendar :)
height chart
Every 6 months, each child is measured on one of our pantry walls. It's a simple but fun way to see how everyone has grown. Of course, they love to see how they compare with one another at various ages, too.
videos
For the first 8 or 9 years of parenthood, we diligently took an entire 1/2 hour video of each child every 6 months (they were featured, though everyone appeared on each video). Sadly, we have lapsed a little in this area, but it is our goal to continue doing this, so each child will have a *lot* of movies of their childhood by the time they reach 18.
mission trips
. . . under construction! . . .