Christmas Spaghetti

Guest Author Post

Dinner is served

A couple days before Christmas, I make spaghetti sauce. On Christmas afternoon, I move the pot of sauce from our refrigerator to the range and warm it while preparing pasta from a blue box. Matt slices grocery store bread.

The tradition of “Christmas Spaghetti” may not be the tradition our kids are looking forward to, but it is a tradition. They do enjoy it and it simplifies our lives. Most importantly, we can make it happen in most any circumstance (barring our stove joining the band of rebel appliances currently waging war against us.)

Tradition

Our children from hard places cling to traditions. Each time a tradition transpires, their safety is reinforced. Trust is built.

A week before Thanksgiving, one of our sons asked Matt if we would do our “Thanksgiving Tradition” this year. Matt, perplexed, asked our son which tradition he was referring to.

His response: Taking turns saying what we’re thankful for.

More than he was looking forward to the aroma of turkey, watching football, or pie, our son anticipated the Thanksgiving tradition he’d come to expect.

One morning, Facebook reminded me of how “brilliant” we are at parenting with the following post from 2015:

Most brilliant parenting move we’ve made: The tradition of Christmas Spaghetti. If you set the bar low early enough, nobody knows the difference. In fact, we all prefer the freedom that accompanies simplicity.

While making spaghetti doesn’t really qualify as genius, simplicity lowers our family’s stress.

Recipe for success

Simplicity + Tradition is an unstoppable formula in our family.

Complexity increases our family’s stress.

When we create complex traditions, we set ourselves up for repeated failure.

We set our children up for insecurity.

While spaghetti isn’t their favorite food, there is no worthy substitute for Christmas Spaghetti as far as our children are concerned.

It’s simple.

And it’s our tradition.

About the Author: Nicole Pritchard is parenting four sons through both birth and foster care adoption. She blogs over at Coffee Colored Sofa where she shares her story of how parenting is changing her. You can also find her on Twitter. This post was originally published on her blog.