Tradition!

My friend Heather started this thread about Traditions here. She has asked everyone who reads her blog to share some of their traditions. Here are some of the ones I remember. Will you share yours? I'm going to just blurt them out instead of trying to organize them by year. I barely have time to blog anymore so here goes..
This first picture is of my family when we performed in Nauvoo, Illinois. We did Christmas in Nauvoo 2 years in a row and would have done it again had we not moved to Utah. It was such a wonderful experience. There were 4 families who participated. We sang songs as individual families as well as groups of just the girls, just the boys, and everyone together. We also played tone chimes. It is one of my most FAVORITE memories. I wish my children could experience that!
On Easter, we didn't do the whole Easter Bunny thing. Yes, my parents usually gave us a basket of candy Sunday morning but we really focused on the Savior and His resurrection. We dyed Easter Eggs during the week and had a hunt on Saturday but Sunday was sacred and was devoted to the true meaning of Easter. That is a tradition I continue with my children today.
I have many Christmas traditions that I LOVED doing. I remember helping Mom make bread bears and pumpkin rolls to take to our friends and neighbors. It wasn't good enough to just take these goodies to our friends. We got together with our friends the Petersons and went Christmas Caroling. I LOVE CHRISTMAS CAROLING!!! It brings such joy to people. Well, at least it did. I haven't had quite the same experience since leaving Naperville. I loved singing with the Petersons. We all loved to harmonize and it sounded so great!
My parents always had an adult Christmas Caroling party at our house. This was a separate time from our family Christmas Caroling. My parents invited everyone they knew and my Mom made hot wassail and hot chocolate. People came and sang around the piano. I think they also went out Christmas Caroling but I can't remember for sure.
Judy will have to fill in the details there.
We had an Advent Calender that my Mom made. Each day we had some kind of activity to do. One day it said decorate the Christmas Tree. Another day would say make treats and Christmas Carol to the neighbors. The activities helped us focus more on service during the Christmas season.
Christmas Eve was always special. We had a "Jerusalem Dinner". We all put on our bathrobes, put towels on our heads to look like they did in the days when Jesus was born. Then we ate stew in wooden bowls. We also had different cheeses, unleavened bread, ate grapes, and drank sparkling cider to resemble things they would have eaten in Jesus' day. When dinner was done, we would read and act out the "Nativity" as found in Luke in the New Testament.
On Christmas morning, we got Baby Jesus out of Mary's tummy (from our Nativity set) and put him in the Manger. This helped us remember that the reason we celebrate Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
We had a very special New Years Eve celebration that I will never forget. We had the entire Peterson family over for a sleepover. We traded off whose house it was at each year. We went sledding, played outside in the snow, played games inside, and just had a really fun time. I don't have anyone I would keep this tradition with in my life now. It was a very fun time and I miss it.
As far as regular traditions, we eat dinner together as a family. We have Family Home Evening every Sunday. We try to read the scriptures every morning. We have family prayer every morning and every night. We go to church together every Sunday. Sunday is a special day for us so we try to keep it feeling that way. We don't play with friends, we don't watch TV or play computer games. We just spend the time together. We play board games and our new favorite DVD game Righteous. This post is getting too long so if I think of any more traditions, I'll put them in a different post.