Yesterday we spent, as a family, a beautiful day day walking the grounds at the medieval faire. Well, if truth be told, we went as part of a field trip with a home school group. The kids (all teens) quickly split from the parents (with our permission) and walked the grounds themselves for a few hours (with hourly to bi-hourly check-in's). The faire was open till 4pm only to schools (public, private, home schools) so it was a) safe, b) noisy in a different level. Franklin and I had a rocky start to our day (stereotypical husband/wife disagreements in driving directions> LOL), but we were so blessed to have the opportunity to walk around together and spend some time just talking about whatever. I also had forgotten what a geek he is about history until we were walking around exhibits...and I have to tell you, that makes him all the more attractive.
Perhaps not an abnormal amount, for a medieval faire, of shoppes for tarot reading and palm reading could be found. There were a number of amulets and potions, etc. Some booths were for the thematic, but others, you could get a sense that the people running them were really respecting and promoting whatever "faith" it was they were selling. Maxwell ran into one, apparently, (they are out hawking what is inside their tents) and was chastised when he said that he had no need or belief for such things. Franklin and I used the time on the way home to discuss some of the religious based historical inaccuracies portrayed at the faire (none of them favorable, mind you). All these dragons, amulets and spells were really back-alley even for the time period they are depicting...and we paralleled it to today's world.
We were the last of our group to leave, and while I think we were all hot and tired, Franklin pulled us into an audience listening to Celtic music. Both my musical children greatly enjoyed it, and were surprised to have recognized a couple of the songs themselves. Since we were already in the city of Gainesville for the faire, we thought we'd steal away to a couple of the museums Franklin and I usually walk around. One is an art museum (didn't garner much appreciation from the kids) and the other is a Science/History museum (huge ancient marine biology exhibit for Epiphany's sake)...which all the kids enjoyed except for Olivia. She's such a hoot. She was too busy mentally noting each inaccuracy (time lines) that a world without the belief in Creation placed upon fossils, etc. I didn't know just knowing the truth would rob from her the enjoyment of walking through a larger than life full room-display of what it "would have looked like" if you were the size of a fish, underwater in a prehistoric sea.
We don't travel to Gainesville too awful much...but on the occasion, we've always stopped for a treat at an ice-cream parlor connected to a gas station (kind of like how BP sells Godfather's Pizza). We're driving through the darkness on a very unlit portion of state road, and Olivia pipes up about "When are we stopping for ice-cream?" (This began a murmur from our other kids.) It wasn't on our itinerary, and it wasn't money we needed to spend. Franklin did stop, when we came to the store, standing lonely on the side of the road, waiting for people who, in the cold and rain, might have a yen for ice-cream. He ordered everyone sugar cones which comes with a minimum of three scoops, any mix of flavors. Franklin whispered to me as the kids were hugging the sides of the counters, spying which flavor combinations they would order, "I know we don't need this, but when she asked us, I realized that to them this is a family tradition...and I want family traditions for them to remember."
I think back to how many things I wanted for "family traditions" while my kids were growing up. Sometimes I would remember the annual ones, most times not. There are a slew of things that never ever took place, for one reason or another. And then there are the things that just never stuck. There are traditions that my kids loved, grew tired of, and sometimes now see as a bit of a nuisance. There are traditions that my kids loved, and we stopped anyway. But, the traditions that just happen...like knowing Mom and Dad are going to put an educational spin on anything during the car ride home, or that the kids are asked to compare/contrast the world around them with scripture, or that Dad will always try to squeeze in something, even to an already fun time, that will speak directly to a kids interest, or that Mom and Dad can't share car directions with one another without playing "Who's on first," or that Gainesville always means a triple scoop sugar ice cream cone in the back seat of the car on the way home...those things that just naturally happen...those are the traditions that will be shared and handed down if only in story form, to my children's children. And those traditions, the ones hard to recognize when walking through them, are the traditions that will last a lifetime.
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