Do you have any sweet rituals or jokes with any of your adult children still?

When I go to a movie with my daughter, if we there is a preview for something we’d like to see, we sort-of high five and wiggle our fingers. We’ve done this since she was 5. :-)

One of my daughters and I drool over photographs of delicious looking food. We’ll swoon in good restaurants. We smack our lips and reminisce about certain meals. We live to eat well.

My daughter and I have many little inside jokes and words from her childhood we use as code and I guess you could say is rather like a tradition. We also make my famous cranberry apple relish most years for the holidays and she loves giving away jars to her friends and coworkers. We also have this funny little finger touching gesture we make, a gesture I invented that is leftover from her teenage “don’t hug me/kiss me” phase. I extend my index finger and we touch fingertips, a humorous and affectionate reminder of her “don’t touch me” teenage phase. LOL

My children have a ritual of their own. Whenever we go away, we come home to some weird new garden ornament. I think I’ve mentioned this before. We have a topless gnome, a naked, sunbaking gnome, scary, evil owls with eyes that light up at night, two wise monkeys (the third was missing in the store). There are others too. One day we went out to the garden and found a pot crocodile and nobody has owned up to leaving that there, so we are a bit flummoxed about that one!

We also have birthday and Christmas rituals. Things we always do. For instance, I HAVE to make a trifle every year for Christmas and it has to be the same recipe.

And there are lots of other little things and phrases that are understood by family only.

@Earthbound_Misfit It’s one of the things that I miss the most about my marriage. It ended most of that sharing and joking.

I think maybe you and your husband need to stop going away!

If something smells bad, the dog did it.

We also have lots of inside jokes. It’s fun.

When we are able to join up, and we go out to dinner, I always ask the hostess for children’s menus

When somebody tries to push open a door marked “Pull”, one of the family always says “Midvale” in homage to cartoonist Gary Larson.

@Innisfree Haha I love G.L. he is brilliant.

A family ritual when travelling is that the first person to meet someone whom they already know (and must be able to verify this!) is entitled to the dessert of their choice that evening. There has been some pretty clever (and creative) bluffing along the way, but it always make for interesting travel. Can’t wait till the grandkids are old enough to participate!

@Innisfree I love it – both of them. Those kinds of things make for such family bonds.

Welcome to Fluther!

Oh sure. Some times it’s nothing more than, “Watch this Mom!” which started when Chris was 4 and said “Watch this Mom!” and I turned just in time to see him throw a half a brick straight up into the air….
We refer to things in our past all of the time.