Traditions

As we are experiencing this holiday season in full force, our minds has been wondering about what to write.  We missed last month because Thanksgiving tends to be very busy on the farm.  We were in the middle of harvesting turkeys and making sure everyone was able to get the size and variety they ordered.  It is always a gamble when we determine to harvest them.  We always have target weights in mind, but have not been able to hit the mark-yet.  Turkeys are just like people.  They grow at different rates.  It is a guessing game to look at turkey with all their "clothes" i.e. feathers on and guess now how much does that turkey weigh "undressed."  It never fails if we have all large birds, then everyone wants a  small one and vice versa.  Many thanks to our loyal customers for being understanding on the size of their  turkey.

Our theme last month was going to be about traditions. However we felt it was a good theme for this month too.  During the holiday season people seem to be focused on traditions. Our family has traditions year round.  We joke with our 2nd child, that she is the tradition queen.  If we do something once as a family then it becomes a tradition with her.  She says, "we have do things twice." But we don't agree with her.  It seems like we celebrate a lot of traditions around here.  That's fine because in our minds traditions = memories = a heritage and legacy that we hope we're instilling in our children. In fact, Robin is doing some of the same things with them she did with her grandmother and dad.  She remembers every Friday her and her grandmother, along with their neighbors, would go to "town",  Camden, for shopping.  Robin usually goes “town” on Fridays now.  That is when she makes deliveries to  the local Bed & Breakfasts.  A lot of times she has one of children with her and they love to go.  A favorite memory she has at Christmas time is going with  her dad to give Christmas gifts to people he conducted business with. They would make their yearly trip to Four Oaks Farms to purchase products.   They would end their day with a delicious meal at BSL. We're keeping this tradition, but making it our own.  We are so happy to be able to give products we have raised on our own farm.  We still eat lunch at BSL, but now we also make a sweet stop at Mulberry Market too.  Christmas is such a great opportunity to say thank you.

Decorating our tree is a special tradition too.  We make the journey to Cassatt to Lee Land Farms to pick and cut our own Christmas tree.  We put Christmas music on and the decorating begins.  Robin collects ornaments, each one is catalogued so they all tell a special memory which we reflect upon while placing them on the tree.  Some people who have given us the ornaments are no longer alive, or we have moved away from them, or the children  Robin has taught, have grown up.  But, they all represent precious memoires in our journey of life together.   We even have a certain order of the first and last ornament to be placed on the tree.  We hang the first ornament that we purchased on our honeymoon.  We always kiss and have a family hug.  It is an outward symbol to remind our kids we're still committed to loving each other and them too.  The last one on the tree is the Kneeling Santa. We gather around and everyone takes a turn at reading in the book,  A Special Place for Santa.  Then, all four kids hang this ornament on the tree.

Giving is the most important tradition we hope to impart to our children, not only at Christmas, but throughout the entire year.  We always participate in Shoebox Christmas thru Samaritan's Purse.  We go shopping and each child buys gifts for a child in another country.  Nothing bought for the Willoughby kids that day, only for others.  We then pack each box carefully trying to squeeze as many gifts in a box we can.  Afterwards, we pray for the child who will receive the box.  We want our children and those who receive the box to experience the true spirit of Christmas.

This year we're starting a new tradition.  We are participating in Hope Epidemic thru our church.  This is an opportunity to provide water systems and wells in developing countries.  A sobering fact we recently learned is the lack of clean drinking water steals the lives of 5,500 people world wide each day.  That is more that aids, hunger, war or even natural disasters each year.  We participate in other national and local service projects too.  Why?  Not because we are such a "good" family, but because we want our family to have an impact on others.  We want our children to have the tradition and legacy of serving others.

We hope this column has provided you with some warm memories about traditions you may have participated in as a child or encouraged you to start some new traditions of your own. We guess we're living the Hank Williams Jr. song,  Family Traditions, except we choose to let our traditions be a positive, learning experience for our family.  After all, we're on this journey of farming because of our desire to preserve a family tradition.