Thursday, October 9, 2008

General Conference: Family Traditions

Something really important to me is having family traditions. My family had quirky ones like going to the SAME CHRISTMAS TREE FARM every year dispite it's exorbitant cost and dealing with the mean "watch geese" and eating the "free" popcorn.

So one of the family traditions that we've begun is how we watch general conference. When I was little, I remember each of the children in my family laying out our sleeping bags on the floor of the family room. That was our space to sit and watch and listen. Mom always created a wonderful spread of snacking foods for us to eat the whole time. It was great!!

The new generation of conference traditions varies a little. We take our guidance from the Book of Mormon where the prophet who was also King, Benjamin is about to die but has a final sermon to preach. He asks his people to gather to listen: Mosiah 2:6,"And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his a tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them;" So we thought it would be fun to make tents out of sheets and blankets for us to be like the people of Zarahelma. I am amateur at best at making blanket tents, but I married an engineer and he is a master at them. He pulled out his clamps from the garage and made a tent that encompassed our whole living room. It was big enough for our whole family to enjoy!!


How many of your family traditions are centered on food? We make Grandma McKneely's famous Cinnamon Rolls during Conference weekend too! These are always enjoyed with slices of cheddar cheese, bananas and orange juice. YUMMY! And because they are such a favorite I always have lots of willing helpers. I LOVE cooking with my children, yes it takes 3 times as long but I love all the interaction and learning that takes place. And I've learned that as they're involved in food preparation, they're more likely to eat it!!

What General Conference family traditions does your family enjoy?

1 comment:

Laura said...

What a great idea! We don't have any General Conference traditions, other than seeing how long it takes for me to fall asleep. Although this time, Grant and I went through old Ensigns and found things we were thankful for. We then cut them out and pasted them onto a scrapbook page that I finished later that night. I was pretty happy about that.