Keeping Traditions Alive While Living Away From Family

When I first moved away from home, I never fully understood what it would mean for my heart once I had kids of my own. You think about the excitement of a new place, building a life, creating a home but you don’t think about how much you’ll miss those ordinary moments that become extraordinary when your parents, siblings, and cousins are woven into them.

Now, raising a family away from the people who shaped my earliest traditions, there are days when the ache runs deep. Holidays, birthdays, or even just a Sunday dinner - those moments where grandparents would’ve pulled my kids into their arms or cousins would’ve been running wild in the backyard, don’t look the same. I sometimes find myself holding back tears, because as much as I want to give my children everything, I can’t give them the closeness of those special people being down the street.

But what I’ve come to realize is this: traditions don’t disappear because geography changes. They evolve. The heart of them lives inside of us, in the way we pass down recipes, in the songs we sing together, in the bedtime stories I still tell my kids that once were read to me. My little family is building something new while carrying forward pieces of the old.

It’s not easy. There’s a tender balance between missing what was and celebrating what is. Some days, I long so much for my kids to have the same closeness with grandparents and cousins that I did growing up. Other days, I see the joy in their eyes when we create our own rituals - Saturday morning pancakes, holiday crafts at the kitchen table, catching crawdads in the creek - I realize they’re not missing out, they’re simply writing their own story.

I’ve had to remind myself to be thankful for the times I do get with my parents and siblings, even if they aren’t as frequent as I’d like. Those moments become sacred because of the distance, and my heart has learned to treasure them even more.

So if you find yourself far from “home” while raising your own family, know this: the traditions you grew up with can still live on in your home, even if they look a little different. And in the process, you’ll create new memories - ones your children will someday carry in their own hearts, no matter where life takes them.

Healing doesn’t mean ignoring the ache of what we miss. Healing means allowing both gratitude and grief to exist side by side, while choosing to let love lead the way forward.