Our Family Traditions

Every family has a rhythm — those little rituals and recurring moments that, when you look back, end up defining your life together more than almost anything else. Here’s a peek at ours, season by season.

🌱 Spring

Spring starts indoors for us — we plant seeds inside first and watch them sprout on the windowsill before eventually moving them outside to the garden. It’s a slow, hopeful kind of tradition. Spring is also when most of the kids’ birthdays fall, so it’s a season full of celebrations, birthday parties, and a lot of cake.

☀️ Summer

Summer is full. We do the Rollkuchen, slice into watermelon, and follow the Winnipeg Bombers (even from overseas). And camping at Blue Lake and Five Cabins is one of those anchoring summer traditions we come back to year after year.

🍂 Fall

First day of school photos — every year, no exceptions. Then Thanksgiving, which we love to share with Canadians (or really anyone who needs a table if there are no Canadians nearby). Pumpkin pie is non-negotiable. And when the mood strikes, we’ve been known to make a batch of homemade applesauce.

❄️ Winter

Hockey season means following the Winnipeg Jets. Come Christmas, the house smells like cinnamon buns — we make them every year. And New Year’s Eve? Fondue and a murder mystery envelope. It’s become one of those traditions that everyone looks forward to more than they probably admit.

🔄 All year long

Reading before bed. Reading the Bible at dinner — we did this more faithfully when the kids were younger, but it still shows up. Weekend adventures: hiking, biking, exploring wherever the road takes us. Weekend breakfasts like waffles, and an open-door policy for brunch. We love having people over. And every birthday, we sign each other’s birthday books — a small thing that adds up to something really meaningful over the years.

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