"Make the honoring of family traditions—holiday traditions, birthday traditions, Sunday traditions, dinnertime traditions—and the development of new ones a priority throughout your lives. Honor them, write them down, and make certain you follow them. ... Be certain you are creating a rich environment in which your family can look forward to special times of the year when traditions hold you together as a great eternal family unit.
Understand that this is neither a simple nor an easy solution. Just as Rome was not built in a day, neither are family traditions. Family traditions can offer basic and lasting support, but there’s a lot that must be built around them. Perhaps family traditions work only when they create a role for every member of the family and when there is united effort to build them. This means family members need to spend time together and learn how to work together. When it comes to families, there is no such thing as quality time without a certain quantity of time." L. Tom Perry
As with most families, gathering for holidays and birthdays was a must. These photos from Christmas 1955 show a large family get together at Florence & Caryl Holton's, in London, Ohio. The London Holtons had many holiday and birthday dinners together over the decades. This Christmas we were joined by Mary's parents, Mildred & Harry Floyd (from Evanston, Illinois) and Dick, Connie, Melissa & Jane Holton. I'm not sure where they were living in 1955.
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In the top picture - note the style of the telephone. The curved table in front of the couch is still in the family. I think that's Susan kneeling in the middle. I think she's wearing a felt poodle skirt. Gram (Mildred Floyd) made the skirts for Susan and Julia that Christmas.
Everyone is admiring the Christmas mobile made by Caryl Holton. One of Grandpa's traditions was to make a mobile and hang it over the dining room table at Christmas. On the table - olives. We always had olives at special dinners.
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If we could have a redo, we would be more deliberate about developing more family traditions.
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