colin's teacher sent out a note the other day letting parents know that she'd be asking the kids to start sharing family traditions with the rest of the class in a few weeks. now, if we were a religious family it would be pretty easy to drum up some churchy ritual for colin to describe to his classmates. but we're not.
and since my family was never big on coming up with our own traditions when i was growing up, i guess it just hadn't occurred to me to start any with my little guys. (we - my mom, dad, and i - used to go on christmas day hikes each year, something i really enjoyed, but that's not something that's feasible for my young family here in snowy Denver.)
now that the pressure is on, i've been considering whether it would be possible to start a new family tradition sometime between now and when it's Colin's assigned day to share. we've got two weeks, after all. but that seems a little, disingenuous (at best) or just plain dishonest (at worse).
so far the only real family tradition that i've been able to come up with is what i like to call "the imaginary birthday candles." it's such a sad, pathetic excuse for a family tradition, but at least it's real. every year for the each of the boys' birthday parties, i go out of my way to get a cute birthday candle for their cakes. and each freaking year, without fail,
i forget to bring the candle to the party. this means that i now have a drawer full of fancy birthday candles. not the plain toothpick thin stick candles, but the fancy character candles -- spiderman holding the number 4, elmo standing on the number 2. this also means that i've got tons of photos from each birthday party showing the boys blowing out their
imaginary birthday candles. colin used to think that imaginary birthday candles were magic, that they were more powerful than regular birthday candles. but he'll be six next year, and i have a feeling the jig is up. he's on to me. there was something in the way he looked at me earlier this summer as he was blowing over the top of his naked, store bought sheet cake in front of his friends at his cowboy themed birthday party.
and besides, when i tentatively suggested that he tell the class about our charming family tradition this morning, he rolled his eyes at me and pointed out that he was supposed to bring something into the class to show. and the idea of pantomiming "imaginary birthday candles" to the rest of his class was just too sad to think about about.
is it too late to convert to judaism?
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