Traditions

 Oh my gosh, how I just love traditions.  New and old.  The entire word makes me think of Fiddler on the Roof and the song.  TRADITION!  I'm not sure if that has a good meaning or not (though I've always loved Fiddler of the Roof), but I love making up traditions.

We have a new one in Glasgow that I am loving and it seems the boys are totally in as well (not true, Levi seems to fully and completely dread it), but I like to see it my way and that someday he will not only love it but carry it on.  Don't you think as a mom (of especially teens) we have to tell ourselves these stories, just to get thru the day?  

Anyway - it's called the Glasgow Gang Group hug!  I was realizing that I was the first to go to bed at the early hour of 9:45pm (which seems like 4pm to Jackson), but none the less, I don't go to bed without hugging the boys goodnight.  We are well past the time of me tucking them into bed (because let's face it, I really don't want to see how they live in the squalor of their bedrooms).  But I figured you could kill two birds with one stone (terrible analogy).  So I stand up, arms out as if in a T and announce it is time for the Glasgow gang group hug.  It has gotten to the point that I just stand up and put my arms out until someone notices.  Jackson laughs at me and then says, 'come on Levi, time for the hug."  Levi drags his feet all the way there and we grasp him into a tight trifecta hug.  Jackson then begins to tickle Levi until he smiles (which he doesn't do because he is 14 and can't be bothered with all of these antics).  I then go after Jackson with tickling to make it fair.  We give up, and I go to bed.  My soul full with love and smiles!

Another tradition we do is to play board games after dinner.  The person who cooks usually gets to choose.  I had this tradition well before covid, but being in lock down has certainly heightened our playing.  I do miss Chelsea and beating her at cribbage every game we played (LOL), but now I've got the boys to beat!!  They pay me back and win at marbles, jenga and sevens.  We meant to bring Uno here, but I asked Levi to pack it and of course it was never seen again.  Racko made its way to Glasgow, but I'm the one who likes it the best.  I just very much enjoy nobody being on their phones (as they aren't allowed at dinner-another tradition), and doing some good old competitive and rowdy honest to goodness board game playing.  

Other traditions we do, but aren't loved by all (including me), are cleaning the house on the weekends.  Going grocery shopping.  Going to TJMaxx! (okay I completely love this one).  Washing the dishes.  Cleaning up cat litters (now fully in Chelsea's court), paying bills, pumping gas in the car (done with that for now!), etc, etc.

One we have all added in Glasgow is tea drinking.  Seriously, I don't know why the three of us didn't do this in Dublin (probably because I heated that house better), but we are all in.  So far, we have 10 different selections of tea and 3 selections of honey.  I've taken to having tea at least in the afternoon when my alertness starts to fade.  Jackson seems to drink it when he is cold, and Levi joins in when he can add as much honey as possible without anyone looking.  Tea anyone?  I guess we are becoming Scottish, yet no crumpets so far.  

I'd love to hear of your traditions as I'm always looking to add to mine.  The more fun the better, but if you've got one that helps kids (and mums) do chores happily and with a good outcome, I'm all ears!  

Happy home making all,

Kitty

Levi:

  I have always loved Halloween because I love staying inside and seeing people running around getting candy and being happy hanging out with their friends, I don't know if they do trick or treating here but I'm happy Halloween is coming up soon and I think it will be very fun, also Christmas is a very loved tradition by me and my family, probably because you get free gifts but its really nice seeing people happy getting things and thanking whoever gave it to them and just having a good time, any holidays in general are my favorite types of traditions.

Jackson:

Lately we have been going to a new restaurant each week to try out new places. The UK Government implemented a scheme titled 'eat out to help out' where restaurants choose to take place and then the customers get 50% off of their bill up to 10£ for each person. This means that if there are 3 of us, we can have a bill of £60 and get £30 off making it total only £30. We have discovered many fantastic places to eat.

Last week we went to a restaurant called Barca Tapas and they had some really good Spanish types of tapas. 

The week before that we went to a restaurant called The Citizen. It was a really nice place in the city center and I got a delicious steak sandwich. My Mom got a curry.